A Vampire Named Alice
by xDreamlessx
Summary: AU. Bella is a small town police deputy who drives home from the station one night and picks up a young girl hitchhiking – a girl who happens to be a lonely little vampiress named Alice. Bella/Alice
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hey. I've had this idea in mind for a long time, so I thought I'd give it a shot. It's pure Bellice, and I mean pure. Bella and Alice will be the only two named characters in the entire story. No sub-pairings or anything like that. I have a theory about distilled romance I've always wanted to try out. Anyway, here's the first chapter. Bear in mind it's AU, so don't expect anyone to sparkle.**

—

A Vampire Named Alice

—

_She came to me in a dream. __Pale and pretty, her body young and nubile. Slight of waist, slender of shoulder, legs long and slim and white like pearl. Plump breasts shaped soft and succulent upon her tiny chest, topped with nipples that are pink and little like tulipbuds. The definition of her shoulderblades faintly visible in the milky expanse of her back, her spine gracefully curved, her hips round and small and her buttocks peachshaped and softly firm like ripened fruit. Smiling over her shoulder with lips wicked and red like roses. Eyes big and bright and brimming with blackness. An unearthly beauty. Beauty to stop your breath. To make your heart burst. I tried to call out to her but I wasn't there. She was alone in the darkness and then I woke up._

—

Chapter 1:

—

The rain was falling so hard she could barely see out the windshield. The wipers were slashing long sheaves of water from the rain-blurred glass and she had to lean a little over the steering wheel to see. There was a girl out there, alone in the rain, scantily dressed in denim shorts and a croptop. No slicker, no umbrella, skipping through the rain, splashing in the puddles like a child. She had a backpack slung over her shoulder but it was a little late to be walking home from school. It was already dark. Bella was coming up behind her and without really knowing why she swung the cruiser around and pulled up beside her.

The girl paused and approached the window as Bella let it down. "Hey there," she called loudly over the roar of the rain. "Where you headed?"

The girl bent to the window. A small crack of cleavage in her top. Her face was pale and wet with rain and she gave the police woman a mischievous smile. She was bent at the hip and leaning on the windowpane like a hooker working a client.

"Am I in trouble?" she asked cutely.

Bella chuckled once and shook her head. "Just wondering if you need a ride," she said. "Come on, hop in. It's pouring rain out there."

"Are you sure? I'm pretty wet."

"Worse things have been in this car than a bit of rainwater. Come on, get in."

The girl giggled a thank you and trotted around to the other side of the cruiser. Bella put the window back up and looked in the rearview, brushing a bit of hair away from her face as if to pretty herself up just a little.

The passenger door opened and the sound of rain was suddenly loud. The girl slipped off her backpack and climbed into the car daintily, stepping inside with big black boots and setting the backpack in her lap as she sat down. Her hair was black and short, a damp matt of spikes atop her pretty head, like a pixie or a water sprite. Rain was gusting into the car and she laughed and pulled closed the door.

"Gosh, I am absolutely soaked!"

Her top was drenched and the black material clung to her tiny chest. All her arms and part of her midriff were exposed and Bella couldn't understand how she wasn't frozen solid dressed as she was.

"You must be freezing," she said, reaching for the heater. "Here, hold on a second."

Hot air came billowing out and the girl held her hands to the vent. Her nails were short and painted black. She was smiling and she didn't look even a little bit cold.

"Thanks," she said.

Bella nodded, again glancing at her. Her legs were long and slim, droplets of water on them. She reached for the key but the car was already running. She cleared her throat, glancing at the girl once more, and then pulled out into the road and the rain.

"So," she said. "Where you headed?"

"California."

"California?"

"Mmhm."

"You aren't from Forks?"

"No."

"Oh," Bella said. She glanced at the girl and back at the windshield, turning a corner idly and driving on. "I thought you were just walking home or something."

"No," the girl said. "I'm not from around here."

"Well, uh…where should I drop you?"

"I'm not sure. I was happy just to walk."

"You plan to walk all the way to California? Because if you're thinking about hitchhiking, you might want to think again. It's dangerous. Not to mention illegal. How come you're not on a bus?"

"I don't like busses. It's too crowded and people always stare. I don't have a lot of money, anyway."

"How much do you have?"

"Not much."

Bella glanced at her, twice, wondering if she was joking. The girl was looking out the window with a certain curiosity, watching the rain and the slideshow of closed shopfronts they passed. She had a stud in her ear, some kind of cheap pink stone.

"Well, what do you plan to do when you get to California?" Bella asked. "Do have family there or something?"

The girl turned to her, smiling, and gave a little shake of her head. "No."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," she said. "Porn?"

She was joking, but Bella didn't laugh. She looked at her, unimpressed, and then she turned and pulled the car over by the curb.

The girl seemed surprised, but not unpleasantly. She looked at the woman, smiling, sitting there wet and cute and strangely untroubled, as if everything was just fine and the night could not have turned out nicer. Her eyes were stained with wet eyeliner and the rain had dragged paths of black tears on her cheeks despite her smile.

Bella cut off the engine. The rain rattled on the roof of the cruiser in the silence. She regarded the girl for a second and took a moment to collect her thoughts.

"So let me get this straight," she said. "You're out here in the streets with no money, no home, and no place to go. Is that what you're telling me?"

"Basically," she said.

Bella exhaled through her nose, and what exactly was she dealing with here? A runaway? A drifter? She couldn't even tell how old she was, although she didn't look over eighteen.

"You got any ID on you?"

She shook her head, almost guiltily, as if she hated to be a bother but couldn't help it. Bella tapped the steering wheel with a finger and looked her over again.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"Nineteen."

"You don't look nineteen."

The girl smiled and shrugged a bare shoulder. "Well, looks can be deceiving," she said. Then she looked at the woman with a studied boldness and said, "I'm old enough to have sex, if that's what you're wondering about."

Bella didn't answer for a second. The girl was watching her with eyes that were big and dark and beautiful beyond anything she had ever seen. Long lashes. Batting them, once, twice. Bella swallowed a lump in her throat and kept her face stern.

"Look," she said. "It's not every day we get teenage runaway's passing through town and if at all possible I'd prefer not to simply set you out by the side of the road and let you freeze to death somewhere between here and wherever it is you think you're headed. So I'm going to give you two choices. Either I can take you down to the station and hold you there until we figure out who you are and what to do with you, or…I can take you home with me."

The girl seemed surprised. She raised her eyebrows and said, "With you?"

Bella nodded, a strange blush creeping into her face. "What do you say? You could get cleaned up, dry off, have something to eat. I'll have to call missing persons to see if there's anyone looking for you, but if everything checks out…well, I guess you can get a fresh start in the morning. I'll even give you money for a bus. What do you think?"

The girl watched her, a slight tilt to both her head and her lips. Her dark eyes traveled over the woman's tan colored uniform, her face, her long brown hair.

"Do you live alone?" she asked.

Bella snorted once and reached for the key. "Just me and a cat."

"Do you get lonely?"

"Sometimes," she said, pulling out into the road. "Do you?"

The girl nodded to herself, as if she did get lonely sometimes, but what she said was, "No. I always find someone."

It was a short drive back to her place, a small dark house in a street of small dark houses. A scent of rain in the car and wet clothes and a trace of cheap perfume. Bella kept glancing at the girl as she drove and her eyes fluttered more than once over her legs. She looked like a runaway model.

It had started to storm by the time she parked the cruiser in the driveway. The girl grabbed her backpack and followed the woman across the soggy lawn to the front door. Bella held her hand over her head as she jogged but she still got wet. The girl giggled and crowded on the porch as Bella unlocked the door.

Inside she directed the girl down the corridor to the downstairs bathroom while she went upstairs to find her some clothes. She tore open her dresser drawers and wondered if she was in over her head. The girl seemed like a trendy kind of chick and what if Bella's clothes were below her? She wasn't exactly known around town for her fashion sense. The only dress she had ever owned was a prom dress and most of the wardrobe consisted of pants and slacks in various drab and tasteless colors and her uniform—which is likewise drab and tasteless.

In the end she grabbed some socks and underwear and a sweatshirt and a pair of sweatpants—just casual housewear—and went back downstairs.

She found the girl lingering in the bathroom and she gave her an awkward smile as she dumped the clothes into the sink. The rain and wind was loud outside.

"You can wear these," she said. "Might be a little small, but it's dry."

"Thanks," the girl said, and then she pulled off her top.

It came away wet and clingy and underneath her small breasts were encased in a lacy black bra. Bella was reaching for the laundrybasket, trying not to stare.

"Just put your things in the hamper," she said. "I'll…"

The girl continued to undress. Kicking off her boots. Unzipping her shorts and letting them down her legs. She removed her bra, reaching behind her back for the catch and letting the loops fall from her slender shoulders, and then she pushed down her panties—matching black lace like her bra—and finally she took off her socks, lifting one foot then the other as she peeled them off, delicate like a crane.

Bella was holding the laundrybasket in both hands like a beggar with a coindish. The girl dropped in her things, smiling. Her nipples on her tiny chest were pink and large. Bella looked away, scooping up the backpack from the floor. Either the girl was waxed or very young.

"I'll put this stuff in the washer," she said. "There's nothing illegal in the backpack, is there?"

"Well, some of it's shoplifted," said the girl. Bella looked back from the doorway. The girl winked at her cutely, naked, smiling. "Just don't tell the police."

Bella was still in her police uniform and she was so flustered she didn't know what to say. She stepped out the bathroom, blushing, and pulled the door closed behind her.

And for a minute she stood there.

There in the corridor, laundrybasket against her hip, leaning back against the door. She could feel the pulse in her neck, throbbing. She blinked, she swallowed. She was staring at the carpet but all she could see was slim legs and perky tits, as if the girl's hotness had somehow burnt into her retinas. Behind the door she heard the shower turn on. Bella shook her head and went down the corridor on wonky legs.

The storm had picked up and the first thunder cracked as she began loading the girl's things into the washing machine. She paused for a second with the girl's underwear in her hand, admiring the lace work, the delicate black elastic, somewhat overwhelmed at the fact that she was holding in her hands a garment that until a few minutes ago had the privilege to adorn the body of the cutest girl she had ever seen. She put it in the washer and took up the backpack, a trendy black leather satchel. She unzipped it and rummaged inside. A top or two. A pair of jeans.

She put them into the washer, added a scoop of powder, and decided to snoop a little further in the pack. It was a slight invasion of privacy, but she felt she was permitted. She had let this girl into her home, after all, and it was probably best to know whether or not she was hiding anything suspicious. Like drugs or the severed heads of her parents.

She found an iPod and a phone that didn't work. A collection of makeup. A bottle of nailpolish. Tubes of lipstick. She dug a little further and in the bottom of the pack her hand closed around a long plastic shaft. She lifted it out and stood looking at it.

It was a vibrator.

Purple in colour, chrome, cold, heavier than she would've thought. She could see her reflection in its smooth surface. There was a switch in the base and she switched it on. It began humming in her hand. The vibrations travelled up her arm in a tremor of tingles and she turned it off again.

"Jesus," she whispered.

She put the toy back in the backpack and zipped it up.

The storm had worsened by the time she entered the kitchen. She could hear the wind lashing the trees against the side of the house and she was almost worried the phone might not work. But it did, and the first place she called was the pizza place down the road.

The second call she made was to the station. She gave a description and asked the guy at the desk to check with missing persons about any runaways fitting her description. She said she'd call back and update the description if she could get more info. She didn't even know her name.

While she was on the phone the cat was at her feet, meowing softly to be fed. Bella opened a fresh tin and set a small plate in the corner.

The pizza arrived as the girl was getting out the shower. She came into the kitchen, silent as a mouse in her socks, and Bella smiled at her. The sweatshirt fell almost to her knees like a floppy dress and not even her fingers poked from the sleeves. Her short black hair was dry and messy and it looked soft and downy on her head.

"Hey, I ordered pizza," she said. "You hungry?"

The girl looked at the pizza and hesitated slightly, as if maybe it was the wrong kind, but then she smiled. "Um, I guess," she said. "A little bit."

Then she noticed the cat. It was white and fluffy and it was perched atop the fridge like an ornament or a guardian, gazing down at the girl with yellow eyes and its tail whisking. The girl smiled and immediately reached to pet it.

"Wow, what a cute cat," she said. "Can I pet him?"

"Her," Bella said. "Her name's Snowflake. And sure, go ahead."

The girl was reaching up and scratching behind the cat's ear. The cat had sat up and she was tilting her head into the hand cautiously, watching the girl for any funny business. Bella chuckled.

"Usually she hates people," she said.

"Oh, nobody hates Alice," said the girl, speaking to the cat with a bright smile and a cooing voice. "Do they, Snowflake? No, no, no, everybody loves Alice."

Bella chuckled again and set some plates and napkins on the table by the pizzabox. "Come on, sit down," she said. "Is soda okay to drink?"

"Yes. Thank you."

Bella got a bottle of soda out the fridge and poured two glasses full. The cat jumped onto the counter and hopped onto the floor and trotted out. The girl was washing her hands at the sink. She dried her hands with papertowel and they sat down.

Bella flipped open the pizza box. "So, uh…is that your name?" she asked. "Alice?"

"Mmhm."

"Alice what?"

"Just Alice."

The girl had taken a small slice and she was holding it in a napkin. She took a bird sized bite and nodded as if it was good. Bella smiled.

"And where you from, Alice?"

"Hard to say."

"Why is it hard to say?"

"Well, I've been here, I've been there. I never settle for long."

"You look a little young to have been on the road very long."

The girl shrugged and took another bite. Or she seemed to, not much of the slice disappeared. Bella took a sip of soda and another large bite.

"You never mentioned where you were coming from," she said. "Coming from Seattle?"

"Good guess."

"And how come you left Seattle?"

"My girlfriend broke up with me."

Bella stopped chewing for a moment. Then she swallowed.

"Girlfriend?"

The girl was watching her, watching her reaction with her pretty eyes. She nodded, confirming it. The wind howled outside and the bulb in the ceiling flickered. Bella chuckled once, a soft snort of surprise.

"Wow," she said. "How come she broke up with you?"

The girl shrugged. A small gesture of sadness, slightly indifferent, as if such sorrows were familiar to her and didn't really hurt that much anymore. Bella nodded as if she understood.

"I guess you don't want to talk about it," she said.

"Not really."

"Must've been pretty serious."

"It was."

"So she broke up with you and suddenly you decided to just up and split town?"

"Something like that."

"Did you leave any family in Seattle?"

"No," said the girl. "Just her."

Bella nodded, resisting the urge to pry further. The girl was focusing on the slice of pizza in her hand but then she looked up with a smile.

"What about you?" she asked.

"What about me?"

"How come you live alone?"

Bella looked about the kitchen. As if she didn't really know. The old cabinets, the gas stove, the window over the sink, the rain falling in the dark yard outside. "This was my dad's house," she said. "Then he died."

"That's sad. You never got married?"

"No."

"How come?"

"Well, I'm still young. I'm not even thirty."

"Still."

Bella smiled and snorted once. She shrugged, she gestured with her pizza slice. "Well, I guess I never met someone," she said. "Still looking, though."

"I noticed."

"Noticed what?"

"That you were looking."

"At what?"

"Me," said the girl, smiling playfully.

Bella raised her eyebrows. "You?"

"Mmhm."

Bella was surprised for a second but then she chuckled and shook her head. She was blushing and it made her look prettier than usual, a becoming contrast to the khaki of her uniform. She took another slice out the box and chuckled again.

"You're cute, but not that cute," she said.

"I think I am."

"Well, maybe you are."

"Do you like girls?"

"Do I like girls?"

"Yes. Do you like girls."

Bella was at a loss. The girl smiled.

"You do, don't you?"

"Well, uh…"

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No. No girlfriend."

The girl nodded, as if that made sense. "I guess you don't have a whole lot of options in a small town like this."

Bella smiled and shook her head at how forward the girl was. "Not really," she said. "But it's home."

"It's not a home if you don't have someone to share it with."

"I'll find someone eventually."

"Hey, you know what you should do?"

"What?"

"You should come with me to California. Best gay clubs in the world are in California."

"Who said I'm gay?"

"I can tell."

Bella chuckled to herself, still blushing, her eyes bright and sidling shyly away from the pretty girl sitting across from her and back again. "Well, I'll think about it," she said. "How's the pizza?"

It was a deflection as well as a genuine question. The girl hadn't even finished a slice. She was holding it in her hand like a prop for a scene and now she took a big bite and pretended to enjoy it.

"Mmm," she said. "Delicious."

Bella nodded and sipped her soda. A silent flare of lightning lit the kitchen window and she glanced at it briefly. The girl had glanced at the flash in the window as well and they both turned back at the same time. Their eyes met. Thunder cracked. The girl giggled, as if the eye contact tickled her somehow, and Bella looked away, her heart fluttering.

"It's getting pretty bad out there," the girl said. "Good thing you pick me up."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Are you scared of storms?"

"No. Are you?"

"Maybe a little."

"You don't look scared."

"I know. I'm just trying to be cute."

Bella laughed to herself, almost a giggle. She hadn't smiled this much in a long time. The girl was smiling too and she was honestly the most adorable thing Bella had ever seen. Her eyes, so huge and dark. Her face, heart shaped and perfect in every feature. Button nose, tiny chin. Slim neck and slender shoulders, half lost in the outsized sweatshirt she wore. Bella wiped her mouth with a napkin and hesitated a moment before she spoke.

"Listen," she said. "You seem like a decent kid and I'd like to help you out. So…"

"So what?"

"So why don't you stick around town for a while? I could put in a good word somewhere, get you a job. You could save a little money, think things over, decide what you want to do. What do you think?"

The girl paused, the slice of pizza subsiding to the table. She seemed to think about it for a second and Bella waited, a fluttery feeling in her stomach.

"Well," said the girl. "Where would I stay?"

Bella shrugged, trying not to blush. "Well, you could stay here for a while," she said. "It's not much, but it's better than a shelter or a park bench."

The girl smiled at that. She tilted her head and assessed the woman across the table with a brief flicker of her dark eyes and then she shrugged.

"Well," she said. "I'll think about it."

—

After they finished eating they cleaned up together, the girl insisting. She had eaten only a single slice and hadn't even sipped her soda. She said she was on a special diet.

It had been a long day and soon it was bedtime. The storm had not abated and the occasional crack of lightning caused the girl to giggle each time. They fixed up the spare room together, changing the sheets and pillowcases, scenting them with a squirt of perfume. The girl sat on the edge of the bed and bounced once to test the springiness.

"Well, I'll let you get to sleep," Bella was saying, moving toward the door. "I'll probably be gone by the time you get up so just make yourself at home, okay?"

The girl giggled. "Hope your valuables are locked up."

Bella paused at the door and pulled it half closed. She smiled at the girl on the bed. "I'll take my chances," she said. "Just get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay," the girl said. "And thank you. For being so generous."

"Don't mention it."

"I mean it," said the girl. Bella paused and looked back into the room. The girl smiled, sitting there with a certain coquettishness, knees together, eyes big and bold. "Seriously," she said. "I'm very…_grateful_."

Bella felt her throat tighten. She lingered there in the doorway. Thunder cracked outside and the girl glanced at the window for a second. Then she turned back to the woman in the doorway. She looked at her for a moment and then she rose, smiling, and wandered forward slightly.

"Look," she said. "There's no need to be coy, right? I can tell you like me. And I really like you too. So…"

She had her hands laced behind her back, all swaddled up in her sweatshirt, and she gave a tiny shrug.

"It's up to you," she said. "What do you think?"

Bella released the breath she was holding. The temptation was so sharp and breathless it made her dizzy. But she fought it all back and swallowed away the lump in her throat.

"I think you should get some sleep," she said.

The girl's smile flickered. Then it faded away. Her hands became unlaced and her brows drew together slightly, a crack of thunder in the distance lending her affront a certain sinisterness. Bella smiled and reached for the wallswitch.

"Sweet dreams," she said.

The girl pouted. "You too."

Bella took one last look at the girl, smiling, and shut the door.

Then she wandered down the corridor, smiling, to her bedroom.

It was late and she left her uniform on the floor as she took it off. Her underwear was plain cotton, nothing fancy like her pretty houseguest. She got some shorts and a sleeptank from the dresser drawer and took them into the adjoining bathroom to shower and brush her teeth.

It was almost midnight by the time she flipped off the light and climbed into bed. The sheets were cold and she rubbed her legs together to warm them up. She was laying on her side, curled up, and as tired as she was, she found that she couldn't sleep. Her thoughts dwelled on the girl down the corridor and she smiled to herself in the dark. There was a strange floaty feeling in her chest and she realized she was quite swept off her feet.

She was drifting toward sleep when there was a soft knock on the door. Her eyes opened and she lay there listening for a second. She wasn't sure if it was the wind.

"Miss Bella?" whispered a voice from the doorway. "Miss Bella are you asleep?"

She sat up slightly in bed. It was pitch black in the room aside from a faint shape in the doorway. "Yes?" she said. "What is it?"

"Nothing," whispered the girl. "I couldn't sleep. May I come in?"

"Well, uh…"

"Please?"

"Okay."

The shape was gone from the doorway. Bella looked about in the darkness. She couldn't tell where the girl was in the room and then she felt the mattress tilt.

The girl was getting into the bed.

Bella's heart leapt. She drew backwards slightly, sitting up, speechless. The girl was climbing on top of her, giggling. Bella's hand touched something smooth and soft. She was staring into the darkness before her, her heart hammering, and—

Lightning cracked. A white light filled the window over the bed and in the revelation she saw the shape of the girl, pale, naked, straddling her lap and smiling for just a second before her pretty face was snatched back into darkness.

"Sorry," she said. "I guess I just hate taking no for an answer."

"What are you doing? Get off me."

"Shhhh," the girl whispered, touching a fingertip to the woman's lips with great accuracy, almost as if she could see in the dark. "Just go with it, okay?

Then the finger brushed away and a pair of lips swooped in from the blackness to take its place.

All sound stopped. The storm, her breath. The touch of those lips stole all sensation from her, like the life draining kiss of a succubus, and her mouth seemed to open by itself.

The girl's tongue entered and Bella's whole head glazed over. Two tiny hands wove into her hair and pulled her deeper into the kiss, moaning softly into her mouth. The girl was pulling off her top. Bella raised her arms and the kiss was broken for just a second before the girl's lips reappeared on hers. It was dark in the room but she could feel the exposure of her breasts. Her nipples hardened in the cold air. The girl leaned into her, wrapping her arms around her neck, and the touch of her naked chest was like her soul ascending.

The girl lowered her to the mattress and continued to kiss her. The contact of their bodies was tangling the sheets and after a while the sheets were gone. Bella's hands were all over the girl's back. Holding her. Stroking her. The girl's lips had descended to her neck, her collarbone. Delicate kisses along the couture of her clavicle. The lips travelled lower onto her chest. Both of the girl's hands were groping her breasts, squeezing them. Small hands. Tiny fingers. A tongue brushed her nipple. Bella quivered and wanted more. The tongue licked again and then her nipple was engulfed in a hot wet mouth. Bella groaned and squirmed as the lips suckled at her. She was holding the girl's head at her chest. Her hair was short and impossibly soft. The girl moved her mouth to the other breast and squeezed it and sucked on the nipple, moaning as if it tasted nice. Bella whimpered and started pushing at the girl's head. For her to go lower. The girl trailed kisses on her tummy, her belly button. Bella was wearing nothing but shorts. Her legs were open and she was throbbing between them. The girl was pulling off her shorts. Bella lifted her hips to help. The wind rattled the window over the bed and wind howled in the attic upstairs. Bella's legs fell open bonelessly. Lightning came again and in the brief flash she saw the girl between her legs like a ghost come to inhabit her. Her thighs were wet and slathered. The room winked out into darkness and a tongue flicked against her womanhood. Bella grasped and groaned. The girl was kissing her entrance. Softly. Gently. She kissed and licked. Tasting her. Teasing her. Bella whimpered. The licks came longer and slower. She could hear the girl moaning over the moan of the wind. She squeezed her eyes shut and tossed her head on the pillow. She could feel the hair stuck to her flushed face. She took fistfuls of bedsheet, moving her hips slowly against that slowly lapping tongue. Her legs were open as far as they would go. Thunder roared in the distance and then crackled close by. She gasped and groaned, the storm raging outside and a storm building inside her. The girl had inserted two fingers into her vagina and she pumped them and curled them and caressed her interior. Bella clenched and clenched and when she came she came once, twice, and came again, her body bursting and buckling under each orgasm until she came a final time with the girl's lips wrapped around her clit and two fingers buried deep within her core.

She thought she was going to die and for a while it felt like she had. She was drenched in sweat and trembling. Exhausted. Laying there and listening to the storm as the girl giggled and settled on top of her. Bella turned her head and opened her eyes. She could see nothing but she knew the girl was there. She could feel the warm weight spread across her, chest to chest, and she knew their lips were probably only inches apart.

"Get off me," she said.

But the girl only giggled. "No."

Bella blinked into the blackness. She had felt the girl breathe the word directly onto her lips and yet she didn't seem to understand it.

"Excuse me?"

The girl ignored this and settled a bit closer. Her hand touched the woman's damp hair and stroked it. "Hey," she whispered, as if to start a conversation. "Do you know what I keep thinking about? I keep thinking about you. And me. And what a coincidence it is that our paths happened to cross. Hm? Think about it. Both attracted to each other. Both lonely. Pretty steep odds, don't you think? Of all the homes in all the world, it was this one I was invited into. Almost enough to make you believe in destiny. Don't you think?"

Bella didn't answer. Her mouth was dry from panting and she closed it and swallowed.

"Think about it," the girl continued. "Think about how I ended up here. All the events required in order to maneuver me into this position. The rain, for instance. Do you think you would've picked me up if it hadn't been raining? Or do you think you would've simply drove on?"

"I don't know," Bella said.

The girl giggled softly. She was nuzzling Bella's cheek, placing little kisses there. "Neither do I," she said. "Yet somehow or other this is where the weathers of the world have led me. Right here. In your bed. On top of you." Her lips had lowered to Bella's neck. To the softly throbbing pulsepoint there. "Do you see what I mean?" she whispered. "It's a strange thought, isn't it? To think it was destiny that led me to you. You can call it coincidence if you want. Sure. But it's so much more romantic to call it destiny."

"Destiny?"

Something sharp grazed her throat. Thunder boomed nearby. Bella put her arms around the girl as if to protect her from the weather and the girl giggled softly into the crook of her neck.

"Yes," she said. "Destiny."

Bella gasped in pain.

The girl had bitten into her neck.

—


	2. Chapter 2

—

Chapter 2:

—

The storm had cleared by morning. She woke with a gasp and sat up. A wave of dizziness washed over her and she reeled for a second. Dim in the room. The curtains closed. Silence. No wind, no birds. The quiet seemed to ring in her ears. She blinked and looked about, holding the covers to her chest. On the sheets beside her there was a dark stain of blood. She stared at it for a second.

She got out of the bed quickly and almost fell over, lurching into the nightstand and leaning on it until the dizziness went away. She was naked and it was very cold. When she finally opened her eyes she grabbed up her underwear from the floor and stumbled into it before staggering into her uniform pants. Her uniform blouse seemed to be missing so she grabbed a shirt from the closet instead, shrugging it on with a frown of concentration and buttoning it haphazardly over her naked breasts.

Her gunbelt was laying on the dresser and she went over to get her gun. There was a mirror mounted into the dresser and she froze when she saw her reflection. A large bruise on her neck, black and purple, and in the center of the bruise two swollen puncture marks like the bites of some monstrous mosquito. Her face and even her lips were pale. Her hair tangled and matted. She had unbuttoned the holster on the kitbelt but now she lifted her hand and touched the bite marks tentatively. She winced at the pain and remembered the events of last night. She looked down at the pistol in the belt, still frowning, but in the end she left it in the holster.

She exited the bedroom cautiously, peering into the corridor. She approached the spare room and opened the door slowly. The bed was untouched and the girl's backpack was laying in the floor at the foot of the bed. Her heartrate accelerated at this evidence that the girl was still in her house and then she continued down the corridor.

She was still lightheaded as she descended the stairs and before she reached the bottom she heard noises in the kitchen, a soft clank and scrape of pans. She turned the corner and found the girl standing at the stove, flipping pancakes wearing nothing but a pair of panties and Bella's police blouse.

Bella felt another wave of dizziness but this time it wasn't because of blood loss. The panties were pink and the material hugged her buttocks in a way that almost seemed affectionate. The girl noticed her there and turned to smile, spatula in hand. Only one or two buttons of the blouse were done up and the collar was open almost to her breasts. The kitchen windows were open and she stood in a beam of sunlight with her mussed hair and the crumpled half-buttoned blouse like a pixie after sex.

"Hi," she chirped. "I borrowed your shirt, hope you don't mind."

Bella kept her distance and glared at her. "What are you doing?"

Her tone caused the girl to dim slightly but she seemed to have expected it. She turned to the stove and took the handle of the fryingpan, poking about at the pancake inside of it with the spatula and a studied domesticity. "Making pancakes," she said. "Do you like pancakes?"

"Put that down," Bella said, ignoring the question. "Turn off the stove."

The girl glanced at her, slightly disappointed, and then she switched off the stove and set down the spatula. She held up her hands, as if to demonstrate her defenselessness, and approached the woman cautiously. "Look," she said. "I can see you're a little freaked out, so why don't we just calm down and talk about this. Okay? I'm not going to hurt you. Look, I even fed your cat."

The cat was in the corner, crouched on the dinnermat there and nibbling at a small plate of Fancy Feast. Bella looked at the cat and back at the girl.

"You're crazy," she said.

The girl giggled softly and took Bella's arm, gently, and guided her to a chair. "Just relax, okay? Come on, sit down. Do you want syrup with your pancakes? Do you even have syrup?"

She opened the fridge and she looked into it. Bella was sitting at the kitchen table stiffly, watching her. Her arm still tingled from where the girl had touched it and she couldn't stop her eyes from flickering over the girl's bare legs. The wound in her neck was throbbing gently, as if to remind her what happened, and she noticed that the girl once again didn't seem affected at all by the cold.

"No syrup," said the girl. "I guess you'll just have to have them with butter."

She searched a few cupboards for a plate and flipped a few pancakes onto it. Then she added a pat of butter—which was actually margarine—and placed it on the table before Bella. Bella sat there, frowning. The girl went and rattled some cutlery and came back with a knife and fork. Bella watched the knife cautiously, as if wary of being stabbed, but the girl just set it on the edge of the plate together with the fork.

"Go ahead," the girl said. "Try it."

Bella took up the knife and fork but she only seemed to move them out of the girl's reach. She didn't touch the pancakes, although they smelled good. The girl sighed and then she took the other chair and shuffled it closer and sat on it, leaning on the table and taking a deep breath to prepare for a difficult conversation.

"Okay," she said. "Let's get the obvious out of the way. Can you guess what I am?"

"Crazy?"

"No," she giggled. "I'm a vampire."

Dead silence in the kitchen. The cat came over and jumped onto Bella's lap. Bella frowned and set it back down on the floor. The cat was confused. It sat there on the tiles, looking up, waiting to be petted, tail twitching in preparation of another jump. The girl picked her up instead and began stroking her.

"A vampire," Bella repeated.

"Mmhm."

Bella looked at the sunlight in the window and back at the girl.

"It's daytime," she said.

The girl lifted a hand and looked at the sunlight on it, as if embarrassed that she wasn't burning to a crisp. "Well, sunlight isn't really a problem for me," she said. "My ruleset seems to be a little more lenient than what you see in movies."

"You sure you're not just crazy?"

The girl scratched the cat behind an ear and smiled at the woman, a knowing smile that dimpled her cheeks and revealed two long sharp fangs in the corners of her mouth.

"Pretty sure," she said.

Then the fangs were gone. The girl lowered her head to coo at the cat in her lap and when she smiled again her teeth were plain teeth, perfectly even and pearly white.

Bella was sitting very still. Her breathing was slow and shallow. When she swallowed she could feel her throat move up and down, but it had to be caps. Caps or crowns. Somehow the fangs had to be fake.

"But listen," the girl went on, setting the cat on the floor and leaning forward. "Before anything, I need you to know that I'm not an evil vampire. I'm a good vampire."

Bella looked at her. "A good vampire."

"Well," said the girl. She smiled and gave a little shrug. "I can be a little naughty, I guess. But yeah, mostly I'm good. I don't hurt people, that's the main thing. I mean, you're still alive, right? And it only hurt a little bit. May I see?"

She pointed loosely at Bella's neck. Bella didn't answer. The girl shuffled her chair around the table even closer and Bella stiffened up as the girl leaned and examined the wound. She touched it gently with her fingertip, tracing the edges of the puncture marks.

"Yeah," she whispered. "It looks pretty bad, doesn't it? You'll be okay, though. I cleaned it up and disinfected it while you were asleep. I was going to put a bandage on it as well, but I couldn't find a first aid kit."

"Well, no offence, but I think I'll have a doctor look at it anyway."

"Why?"

Bella recoiled from the hand and looked at her incredulously. "Why? Because some strange girl who thinks she's a vampire bit me in the neck. That's why. I don't know what diseases you might have."

The girl giggled and sat back, giving the woman some space. "I know this is a lot to take in," she said, "but there's really nothing to worry about. You're not going to turn into a vampire or anything."

"What a relief," Bella said. "Because that's exactly what I was worried about, becoming a vampire."

"You don't believe me, do you?"

Bella didn't answer, not looking at her. The girl sighed, sitting there with her hands in her lap. Her eyes dropped and she noticed a wrinkle in her blouse that she didn't like there. She brushed at it with her hand and adjusted the buttons for a moment. Her eyes wandered to the untouched plate of pancakes on the table and she said:

"You're not eating."

Bella's eyes moved to the pancakes. The butter had partly melted and slid of the side of the stack leaving a trail of gold. She pushed the plate away and shook her head.

"I'm not hungry," she said. "Why are you telling me all this, anyway? Why didn't you just leave while I was asleep?"

The girl gave her a shy smile. She had no makeup on and her lips were a pretty shade of pink. She lowered her eyes and flicked them back up. "Because I like you," she said.

Bella's face remained stony but she could feel her eyes prickle. Because she liked the girl too and the girl was out of her pretty little mind.

"The truth is," the girl went on, "I've had this conversation before. Hundreds of times, with a hundred different girls. Back when I was younger, I used to lie a lot. I'd pretend to be just a regular girl, feeding from my lovers in secret. But eventually they would always find out. And not only would they be shocked that I'm a vampire, but they'd be betrayed as well. Because I'd lied to them. Most of the time they wouldn't even care that I'm a vampire. But the betrayal…it's always the betrayal they couldn't forgive."

The girl was silent for a moment. Then she reached and placed a hand over Bella's on the table, bestowing a smile that was prettier than the sunrise outside.

"So that's why I'm being honest," she said. "I feel that if I tell you what I am right to your face…you might be more willing to accept it."

"You're serious."

"Completely."

"Then you really are crazy."

The girl's hand had been caressing hers warmly. Then it stopped. Then she retracted her hand, folded them in her lap, and sighed, a large and heavy sigh that lifted her shoulders an inch or more and back down again.

Bella rose from the table, the chair scraping back. "Go put some clothes on," she said. "I'm taking you to the hospital. They'll know what to do with you."

"I'm not crazy," said the girl.

Bella was reaching for the wallphone and now she spun around, her temper cracking through her veneer of patience. "You bit me in the neck and drank my fucking blood," she hissed. "Aside from being fucked up, that's also assault and battery. You're delusional and possibly a serial offender. You need help."

The girl rose from her chair with a certain playfulness, tucking it in and spinning on her toe like a ballerina to smile at the woman there.

"I'm not going anywhere," she said.

"You can either come with me to the hospital or I can arrest you. It's strictly up to you."

The girl laced her hands behind her back and swayed on the spot coyly. She was bathed in sunlight from the open window over the sink and inching backwards like a skittish animal.

"Well, you could try arresting me," she said. "But I can't promise I won't resist. You might have to wrestle me to the ground. And whip out the handcuffs."

"I'm serious."

"So am I."

"Fine. Go put some clothes on."

"It might be more fun like this."

"I said—"

Bella reached for the girl to drag her upstairs. But before her hand could close around the girl's wrist, the girl leapt back. She sprung off her feet, instantly and effortlessly, and leapt backwards into a highcorner of the kitchen where she perched weightlessly from the ceiling like something possessed, smiling down at the dumbstruck woman with her eyes suddenly black and opaque and glistening like ink.

"Oh my god," whispered Bella.

The creature cocked it's head, baring it's fangs in a hiss, and then it scuttled across the cabinets like a gigantic spider and disappeared out the open window.

Bella turned and ran.

A wave of dizziness swept over her as she was going up the stairs and she tripped on the landing, stumbling into the corridor and rising and running again. For one brief and wild moment it occurred to her that in the tradition of most horror movie bimbos she was running upstairs when she ought to be running out the door and into her car but then again most Hollywood damsels don't keep a gun on their dresser.

She tore into the bedroom, panting from both the adrenaline and exertion, and seized the pistol from its holster. She flicked off the safety and checked the chamber, reeling slightly from lightheadedness, and then she spun around and surveyed the room.

The girl was outside somewhere, creeping across the walls like a large and predatory insect, and there were two windows in the bedroom. One over the bed—which didn't open—and one in the other wall. Bella swept her gun over both, lingering on the smaller sidewindow. She paused, listening. Utter silence outside and no sound at all in the room but her breathing and the throb of her pulse in her head.

A sheen of sweat covered her forehead and she turned the gun to the door. She approached it cautiously, deciding to make a sweep of the other rooms and then she heard a soft click behind her.

She spun back to the window.

It was open. The lace curtains fluttering in the breeze. Bella stared at it with the gun in her hands and her mouth likewise open and then she felt a breath on her ear.

"I'm right here," the girl whispered.

Bella gasped in fright and spun with the pistol. But the girl caught it and snatched it away with surprising strength, letting it drop to the carpet. Bella panicked and tried to hit her. She had taken kickboxing classes at the gym but all she managed was a girlish flailing of her balled fists. The girl was giggling. She caught the woman's hands and wrenched the woman from side to side to make her quit and then she threw the woman backwards onto the bed, half launching her across the room.

Bella bounced twice on the mattress and began scrambling. She was almost in tears. She had half turned onto her side when the girl landed on top of her. She had leapt almost to the height of the ceiling and came swooping down like a hawk. She was straddling the woman's hips and the woman once again tried to hit her. But the girl caught her wrists and pinned them to the mattress.

"Oh god," Bella groaned, bucking her body under the creature on top of her. "What are you doing? Let me go."

"Shhh," whispered the girl. The woman tried to thrash out from under her but the girl's grip was like iron. "It's okay, it's okay," the girl continued. "Don't be afraid. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just showing you what I'm capable of so you can see that I won't do it. Just relax, okay?"

Bella looked at her, her brown eyes wide with fear, her pale face in a pool of brown hair, her hands pinned to the bed above her head. The bruise in her neck, the bite marks. She was trembling and very aware of how her body was stretched out and helpless.

The girl smiled as the woman calmed down. The fangs were gone and her face was strangely serene and childlike. She watched the fear begin to fade in the woman's trembling eyes and then she passed both of the woman's wrists into the same hand. The woman bucked once but the girl didn't budge. She used her free hand to brush some hair away from the woman's face and smiled even softer.

"There," she said. "See? I told you I'm not going to hurt you, didn't I?"

Bella didn't answer. Her breath trembled in and out of her rising and falling chest. The girl leaned toward her face. Bella stiffened but she didn't turn away. The girl kissed just above her eyebrow. Then lower along the side of her face. Then on her cheek, once, twice, and finally a small kiss on the corner of her mouth.

"I'm sorry I had to attack you like I did last night," she whispered. "But I was desperate. I hadn't fed in a very long time. And I knew you wanted to help me. I thought you'd be cool with it, I honestly did. I really didn't mean to hurt you. I still don't."

Bella blinked. A tear welled in one eye and slid off the side of her face.

"Then let me go," she said.

Her voice came out very small, as if maybe she didn't mean it. In any case, the girl didn't listen. She smiled and leaned lower and rubbed her body against the woman's. The woman squirmed at the friction and made a strange sound. She tugged at her wrists but they were pinned too tight.

"Is that what you really want?" the girl whispered into her lips, kissing them softly. "Hm?" Another kiss. "Do you really want me to let you go? I will, if that's what you really want. But you have to be sure. Think about it. I spoke to you last night about destiny. About how lucky we were to have found each other. Do you really want to throw that away? Do you really…"

The girl trailed off. Bella was returning her kisses. Whimpering. Feverish. She felt powerless not to. Her face was on fire, her heart slamming against her ribcage. She opened her mouth and turned her face slightly, surrendering to a passion that was dark and strange and utterly irresistible.

The girl seemed to expect it. She arched her body into the woman below her, moaning, and deepened the kiss. The entrance of her tongue made the woman's head reel. She opened her mouth wider and squirmed uselessly, unsure if she was trying to get away or trying to get into it. Her skin was ice cold from shock and at the same time burning from how the girl rubbed against it. She could feel herself going awash, drifting, fading.

The girl's grip on her wrists was loosening. Bella was hardly even aware. Her arms became free and instantly she wrapped them around the girl on top of her, deepening the kiss and stroking her back, pushing the blouse up and caressing the skin there, the knobs of her spine, the delicate waist, the faint shape of her shoulderblades, gripping her tightly and mashing their bodies together as one of her hands darted downward to cup her butt, feeling it through the material of her panties before sticking her hand inside the underwear and squeezing the bare softness there. The girl giggle into her mouth, flexing her buttocks under the groping hand, and opened her bright eyes.

"It's okay, don't be shy," she whispered excitedly. "Touch me wherever you want. Here, give me your hand."

The girl took her hand. Bella wasn't sure if she actually gave it to her. The girl was straddling her hips, half sitting up, and she guided the hand between her legs and pressed it to the front of her panties, giggling at the touch with her impish face all pink and flushed.

"Do you want this?" she asked, rubbing the woman's fingers against herself. "You can have it if you want."

Bella's heart was fluttering uncontrollably like a bird trapped in her chest. A damp patch was forming in the girl's underwear, a faint moisture, and suddenly Bella bucked and flipped her over, setting the girl on her back and thrusting her pelvis at the girl's open legs.

The girl gave a yelp of surprise and surrendered the lead happily, craning her face to the side as the woman's lips landed on her jaw, her neck. Bella's hands were fumbling at the girl's blouse. She was kissing at the girl's collarbone and trying to get the buttons open. It was only three buttons but she couldn't even open one. Finally she sat up and simply ripped it open, the buttons bursting and shooting across the room. The girl giggled and helped her take it off, rising up slightly as the woman pulled it away and tossed it over the edge of the bed. Bella's face was frustrated with concentration and when she saw the girl's smile she swooped down and kissed it angrily. The girl giggled again, the sound of it muffled into the kiss, and hooked a leg around her.

Bella spent a few minutes kissing and touching her, letting one of her hands roam the leg wrapped around her, the warm thigh, smooth as silk, while the other hand found one of the girl's breasts and cupped it. It was almost flat on her chest but not quite and the girl responded with little movements of her little body, moaning attractively and loving every second.

Finally she abandoned the girl's mouth and lowered her face to the girl's chest. She licked at one of the nipples there, making the girl groan. The nipple was hard and rough on her tongue. She licked it again and took it between her lips. She moved to the other one and licked it, kissed it, suckled at it. The girl was laughing and her hands had taken little fistfuls of the woman's hair.

"Yes," she said. "Keep going. Don't stop."

Bella raised up, flushed and breathless, and flung back her dishevelled hair. The girl lay there with her legs open, smiling, waiting, her nipples pink and hard on her naked chest. She reached down and touched the insides of her thighs delicately, as if to draw the woman's attention there. Her panties were drenched. Bella took them and pulled them off and tossed them aside. The girl had closed her legs to help get the underwear off and now she reopened them, revealing her bald and glistening girlhood.

Bella looked at it and swallowed, her eyes darting to the girl's face. The girl smiled. There was no sound in the room at all other than their breathing.

"Go ahead," said the girl. "Do whatever you want."

Bella hesitated, her breath trembling. She felt high. The girl kept her eyes locked on Bella's face and Bella reached slowly with her fingertips to touch the slick wet mound between the girl's legs. Soft. Sticky. The girl shivered at the touch. Bella felt a thrill and touched a little more. The girl groaned and squirmed her hips.

"Come on, don't make me beg," she whined. "Please?"

Bella smiled, teasing her. She was easing the tips of two fingers into her folds, slowly, tauntingly. The girl waited for it, her small chest heaving, her hips wide open. Bella lowered her eyes. She could feel the girl's vagina. She could feel the tightness closing around her fingertips. The heat. The hotness. She pushed them in deeper and made the girl groan. The girl's eyes were closed and there was a breathless smile on her face.

"Mmm," she moaned. "That feels so nice."

Bella went deeper. To the knuckle. She pumped her fingers once, in and out and back in, and made the girl moan some more. So warm. So wet. She curled her fingers and touched everywhere inside her. The girl whimpered like a puppy. Bella could feel her vagina clenching down. It felt as if her lower parts were sucking on her fingers. She pulled them out a little and pushed them back in. The girl bucked her hips softly, getting them in deeper. Her clit was right there, a hard little nub above her entrance. Bella looked at it and then she reached with her other hand and brushed it with her thumb.

The girl flinched and giggled. She opened her eyes and beamed a beautiful smile at whatever was going on down there.

"Oh gosh," she gasped. "You're pretty good at this."

Bella smiled and traced circles around her clit.

"Mmm," moaned the girl. "Keep going. That's so good."

Bella kept going. She pumped her fingers in and out, slowly and methodically, and tweaked the girl's clit between her thumb and forefinger. She pinched it and rubbed it and watched the girl's face. The girl watched back, laying there naked, her wrists flung back on the mattress. The orgasm was coming into her face and it was beautiful. She hid nothing. The pleasure came into her eyes and brightened them into glistening black pools. Her smile became elated. She kept her gaze on the woman between her legs and the woman watched, spellbound. The heat around her fingers was getting tighter. The girl gave a gorgeous moan and finally her gaze failed. Her eyes fell shut. She clutched at the pillow above her head, panting, her back beginning to arch, and finally she climaxed with a loud cry, spasming on the fingers inside her and her whole body twisting off the mattress in a sweet agony of orgasm.

Bella watched all this with a feeling she couldn't quite identify. She seemed to be somewhat in shock. Dazed. Passive. The girl subsided onto the bed, laughing breathlessly, clutching little fists to her chest. Her eyelids fluttered open like butterflies and she looked down between her legs. Bella's fingers were still inside her. The girl squeezed on them affectionately with her vagina and eyed her boldly with her lust glazed eyes. Bella was reluctant to take her fingers out but she did. The girl sighed softly at this final withdrawal and closed her legs contentedly.

"Wow," the girl breathed. "Just wow."

Bella knelt there, watching her. She didn't know what to say. She was exhausted. Her head was a complete fog. There wasn't a single thought in it. The girl had rolled onto her side and the shape of her was breathtaking, pale and perfect, like a finely crafted sculpture laying in the bed. Bella touched her hip.

The touch stirred the girl back to life. She turned and sat up, rising from the sheets with a seductive ease, and wrapped her arms around the woman's neck.

"Thank you," she said, gazing into her eyes. "That was wonderful."

Then she kissed her. Bella let her. The girl was pressing their chests together and after a moment she broke the kiss with an impish grin.

"Now come here," she said. "It's your turn."

She went to kiss Bella again but Bella recoiled. The girl stopped herself short, her face flickering with panic and a hint of hurt.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "I thought you weren't mad at me anymore?"

Bella didn't know if it was as simple as that but that wasn't the problem.

"I have to pee," she said.

The girl giggled in relief. "Oh."

"And I should probably shower, too."

The girl giggled again and took the woman's hand. "Well, come on then," she said, pulling her off the bed and toward the adjoining bathroom. "I'm an expert at shower foreplay. By the time I'm done with you you'll be begging me to stay."

The girl winked over her naked shoulder and the woman allowed herself to go along, tugged at the hand of this tiny pixie and stumbling at her heels like something rapt and bewitched by fairy magic.

—

At some point she fell asleep. When she woke it was dark. Dusk. Not quite night. She was naked but tucked in. Only a little cold. She had slept most of the day but she was still exhausted. She sat up in the bed with a headache and looked about.

The girl was once again in the kitchen. She was wearing an apron and ovenmitts and she was loading a small casserole dish into the oven. Bella wandered in wearing nothing but a sheet she'd pulled off the bed and wrapped around herself. The girl saw her and smiled, closing the oven door.

"Hey you," she said. "Look, I made dinner."

She gestured with a grand sweep of her hand at the dinnertable. The table was set with plates and silverware and she had even found a box of candles that were kept in a drawer in case of blackouts. There were two of them in little silver holders and the girl struck a match to light them.

"Hope you like lamb," she said.

"Where'd you get lamb?"

The girl shook out the match and then blew on it as well. "From the store down the street," she said. "I found some money in your purse."

Bella couldn't help smiling. "You stole money out of my purse?"

"Borrowed," said the girl. "You're still gonna get me a job somewhere, right?"

Bella's smile faded a bit. Remembering what the girl really was. The girl waited a moment but she could see it wasn't the right time and she quickly giggled and flapped a hand excitedly.

"Come on, go get dressed," she said. "It'll be ready in just a minute."

Bella hesitated for a moment, looking at the candles and holding the sheet at her chest, and then she turned and went back upstairs.

She opened her closet and realized she had no idea what to wear. It felt like a date and she had never been on a date in her life. She sifted through her shirts. She found a shirt that was a pastel lavender colour and put it on while searching for some pants. She settled on some black slacks and stood in the mirror as she tucked the shirt in. Dimly she realized she wasn't a virgin anymore. It seemed weird. For shoes she went with black flats and then she went into the bathroom and gave her tangled hair a vigorous brushing. She was nervous. As if it really was a date. Frowning, she put the brush away and looked at her face in the mirror over the sink. It looked pale and bland and, still frowning, she used some makeup to spruce it up a little.

By the time she got back downstairs the girl had served dinner. The candlelight was mostly lost in the glare of the yellow bulb overhead but it still seemed romantic. The girl noticed her makeup and smiled to herself. Bella sat down shyly.

The casserole dish was sitting in the centre of the table and the girl lifted the heavy glass lid and served some onto Bella's plate. Bella could smell it, a rich scent of meat and spices. She watched the proceedings with an almost vacant look in her eyes and then she laughed once.

"This is crazy," she said.

The girl giggled as if she agreed. "Well, at least we're both crazy now and it's not just me," she said. "Go on, eat, eat, eat. Don't let it get cold."

Bella took up her fork and tried a piece of the lamb. It was delicious. She hadn't eaten all day and suddenly she realized she was starving.

The girl had set plates for two but she didn't serve herself. She put the lid back over the dish and sat down at the empty plate, like a bad girl who didn't get any dinner tonight.

"What about you?" Bella asked.

"I don't eat. Not food, anyway."

"What do you eat then?"

"Pussy," said the girl.

Bella had been bracing herself for something a little more sinister but the joke made her smile. The girl giggled and apologized for the lewd humour with a wave of her hand.

"I'm kidding," she said. "Just blood."

"Blood?"

"Mmhm."

"So you really are…?"

"A vampire," said the girl. "Yes."

A slow sense of disorientation swept over Bella. She had a piece of diced carrot on her fork but her appetite had failed as instantly as it had come. She lowered the fork and shook her head.

"I still can't believe it," she said.

The girl was watching her with a sad sort of sympathy, as if she had seen it all before and still didn't really know what to say. "I know," she said. "It's not easy. You can't expect to come to terms with it in one day. For now it's probably best to just not even think about it. Besides, is it really that important? I mean, labels are just labels. It's not who I really am."

"Then who are you?"

"Well, I'm Alice. I'm cute and funny and super nice and maybe a tiny bit of a slut. Not to mention I'm a fantastic cook. That's the important stuff, right?"

"I don't know. Is it really that simple?"

"I think it is. I mean, sure, I also drink blood. But none of that actually defines me. I'm more than just a thirst, more than just…a monster. You can believe that, right?"

The girl was looking across the table with a strange earnestness, as if she was trying to convince herself just as much. Twin candleflames trembled in her big black eyes and Bella found herself nodding vaguely.

"I think so," she said.

"So you'll give me a chance?"

"What kind of chance?"

"A chance to get to know me. I'll leave any time you want me to, but I…well, I really do like you."

The girl looked aside shyly. Bella's heart was beating strangely and there was a weird pressure in her head. She looked for something to drink on the table but there was nothing. She licked her dry lips.

"Well…"

The girl looked up. Bella shrugged helplessly.

"Listen," she said. "Vampire or not, you're still the same girl I found wandering in the rain. And the offer still stands. You're welcome to stay here for as long as you need to."

The girl's face slowly lit up in a smile brighter than the candles.

"All I ask," Bella went on, "is that you be respectful. And…"

"And what?"

"And, you know," Bella said, her face flushing with embarrassment. "Don't kill me or whatever."

The girl's smile went even brighter. One corner tilted upwards into a smirk, revealing two fangs that glistened in the candlelight, and she leaned slightly on the table with a sort of seductiveness that was almost evil. She levelled her dark eyes across the table and said:

"Do I have to promise?"

Bella chuckled and blushed, lowering her eyes and poking at the plate with her fork. It seemed like a joke and a very sexy one.

—

They went to bed together that night and together made love, as little as they knew each other, and afterwards they lay in the dark in each other's arms.

"Are you sure it's okay if we share a bed?" whispered the girl.

It was the fourth or fifth time she'd asked. She was laying at Bella's side with Bella's arms wrapped around her and Bella could feel her warm weight on top of her and her smooth skin under her hand and she smiled at how nice it all felt.

"Sure," she said. "Don't worry about it."

The girl snuggled closer, wrapping a leg around her. "Vampires don't sleep, but I hate being alone. I love to cuddle. Do you like to cuddle? We don't have to if it's annoying. I don't want to make you uncomfortable."

"I don't mind."

"Thanks. Just hold me till you fall asleep."

"Okay."

"And Bella?"

"Yeah?"

The girl raised up slightly and placed a kiss on the woman's lips. "Thank you," she said. "I'm really glad I met you." Then she subsided again at her side.

Bella caressed her waist. Her heart felt like it was swelling in her chest. A feeling that was almost painful. She never realized how lonely she had always been until now.

"Me too," she whispered.

Then she closed her eyes, holding the girl in her arms, and slowly drifted toward sleep.

—


	3. Chapter 3

—

Chapter 3:

—

Bella woke in the middle of the night and found the girl still there in the bed with her. It was the cold that woke her and she got up to put some clothes on then she climbed back into the bed. The girl whispered to her and cuddled up to her and after a while she was asleep again.

The alarm woke her in the morning. The girl was still there and she reached across Bella's form to turn the alarm off as Bella began stirring. Bella opened her eyes and saw her. She half expected it all to be a dream but the lips that smiled and leaned down to kiss her were real enough.

"Morning," whispered the girl.

"Morning," Bella whispered back.

It took a few minutes for her to struggle out of bed and by the time she had showered and got dressed in her uniform she found the girl in the kitchen keeping the coffee warm. They said another round of good mornings, each sporting a shy smile, and the girl poured her a cup of coffee. It was barely dawn in the window and steam was rising from the cup. Bella held the warm mug in both hands and blew on it briefly.

"How'd you know I like it black?" she asked.

The girl shrugged cutely. "Lucky guess."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome. Did you want anything to eat?"

The girl had opened the fridge but Bella shook her head. The girl closed it again. They were silent for a moment. Bella sipped the coffee and her eyes drifted across the kitchen cabinets. It was only yesterday when the girl had…

The thought made her sit down.

The girl watched her settle into a chair at the table, glancing at the cabinets as if to see what the problem was, and then she pulled out the other chair and sat down as well. Her thoughts seemed to have followed a similar pattern because her voice came out soft and cautious.

"So," she said. "Everything okay?"

"I think so. Yeah."

The girl nodded and left it at that. Bella took another sip of the coffee.

"You gonna be okay hanging around the house all day?"

"Yeah, I suppose."

"I guess I'll have to get you a key. And a job somewhere. Were you serious about finding work?"

"Well, I could use the money."

"Do you have any qualifications?"

"Nothing under this name."

"How would you feel about waiting tables?"

The girl laughed, a sound that seemed bright and melodic in the gloomy kitchen. "Well, it might be a little bit below my dignity," she said, "but I guess I'll take what I can get. In California I could've got a modelling gig like that."

She snapped her fingers. To demonstrate how quickly she could get a modelling gig in California. Bella looked at how pretty she was, the stylish black spikes of her hair, the perfect features arranged on her perfect face, and she thought it was probably true.

"Well, we don't have many modelling agency's here in Forks," she said, "but I think I know a diner that could use someone."

The girl giggled and rose from the table. "Well, let me practice now by fixing you something to eat."

"That's okay. There's a deli right near the station, I'll just…"

"You'll just have something to eat is what you'll just."

The girl was already rifling through the cupboards for a box of cereal that didn't have a layer of dust on it. She was wearing a pair of Bella's sleepshorts and Bella smiled at her butt as she stood on her toes to reach a higher shelf.

The sun was barely up by the time Bella left. The girl followed her all the way to the door and wished her a good day at work, kissing her on the lips like some odd little wife there on the front porch. The gesture made her heart patter but she wasn't sure if it felt quite right. She crossed the lawn glancing about, hoping none of the neighbours saw. She got into the cruiser and pulled out into the street and the girl was still there in the doorway, waving, watching her leave.

The station was a small building adjoined to the courthouse. She had some excuses to make for her absence yesterday. She told the chief about the girl, Alice, and the chief was understanding. She said the girl was a hitchhiker. The truth was something she hardly believed herself.

She spent most of the day behind the front bench, answering the phone and dealing with people who came in. During her break she called a local diner where one of the waitresses had recently moved to Oregon. She asked the owner, a woman who was the mother of a girl she went to school with, if she was looking for a girl to take her place and the owner asked if the girl had any experience.

"Um, I'm not sure," Bella was saying, "but she's a bright kid, I'm sure she could learn pretty quick. Yep. Uh huh. Uh huh. Okay, well I'll send her over this afternoon. Yep. Thanks a lot, I appreciate it."

She hung up. The chief was passing through the lobby on his way out and he'd heard part of the conversation, shrugging on his heavy duty jacket and gesturing with his chin at the phone.

"What was all that about?"

Bella glanced at the phone as if it was a bother to her and shrugged. For some reason she felt compelled to downplay how she really felt about her guest. "It's for that girl I picked up," she said. "I'm just trying to help get her back on her feet. Did we hear anything from missing persons?"

"Nope," said the chief. "Guess no one's missing her."

Bella nodded. The chief went on and out through the double oak doors.

"Guess not," Bella said to herself.

Later that day she took the girl to the diner and they had dinner there in a booth. The owner came and asked her a few questions and practically hired her on the spot, cracking a joke about how cute waitresses are never bad for business. The food came and the owner left them to eat. The waitress who served them was a puffy blonde who glanced twice at the girl. The girl smiled at her.

They ate. Even the girl, who was a vampire and didn't eat. Bella watched her nibble at the food, not enjoying it but not complaining either. She remembered how the girl had hesitated with the menu earlier but neither had said anything. Bella was still somewhat in denial about the girl's true diet. For dessert they shared a piece of pie. They had been sitting on opposite sides of the booth but now the girl rose and sidled in beside her, feeding her a piece of pie or two from her own fork like a date. Bella glanced over their shoulders but the diner was practically empty and no one seemed to notice.

They went home and the girl played with the cat for a little bit while Bella opened a tin of food. They really seemed to like each other and the girl sat on the actual floor to keep the cat company while it ate, petting it gently and giggling at how it seemed to eat faster, as if worried it might have to share.

Bella left them there and went to get changed out of her uniform. But she had hardly taken off her kitbelt and untucked her blouse when the girl came peeking her head in. She asked if the girl wanted something but the girl only giggled and came in and started unbuttoning her blouse for her. Bella let her. The girl was several inches shorter than her and her little fingers were lithe and dexterous. When she had the blouse unbuttoned she opened the blouse up, revealing the woman's moderately large breasts, each cradled in white cotton cups. Bella was breathless. The girl smiled up at her and stroked the material of the bra with her hands, deliberately and affectionately, and then she leaned and placed little kisses on her chest.

They made love and made love again later that night. In the morning the girl joined her in the shower and almost caused her to be late for work. The day after was Sunday. It rained most of the day and they hardly left the bed. They talked, tangled there in the sheets and each other's arms. Bella told her about her life. About how she realized she was gay. About a crush she had a girl in second grade. About how her father died without ever knowing who she really was. The girl listened and murmured. She said nothing about her own life and Bella was afraid to ask.

For the rest of the week the girl hardly left her side at home and never left her head at work. Patrolling the foggy afternoons in her prowlcar with a smile on her face and the girl's name repeating in her head like a fragment of song lyrics, Alice, Alice, Alice. She couldn't stop thinking about her. So pretty. So cute.

By now the girl had started work at the diner. Bella told her to call when her shift was over and she'd come pick her up. They went grocery shopping together and the girl made dinner. There was a whole stack of paper takeout menus by the phone—pizza, Chinese, Thai—but the girl said she liked cooking. Bella nodded and got the feeling the girl was trying to assimilate herself into her household as quickly as possible. As if to make herself indispensable so that she couldn't be thrown out again. Bella kept her company in the kitchen. The girl was stirring a pot of pasta sauce on the stove with a wooden spoon and the woman held her from behind, swaying her softly as she stirred, murmuring in her ear how delicious it smelt. The girl giggled at these compliments and then she set the stove to simmer and turned around and stood on her toes into a kiss.

A quickie on the kitchen table ensued but not quick enough to keep the sauce from sticking. The girl chided her for distracting her and sent her off to have a shower. Bella showered and came back and found the girl setting the table with little smears of tomato sauce on her borrowed t-shirt. Bella kissed her again, just because, and they sat down to eat. She only dimmed when she saw the girl wasn't eating and remembered what she really was.

Every morning in the mirror she checked the bite marks, craning her neck to the side and touching the skin with her fingers. Within a few days the bruise had yellowed and faded away and soon the puncture marks were gone as well. Her stomach churned when she wondered when the girl would have to do it again but she tried not to think about it.

The girl had different shifts each day, morning or night, and most afternoons she would be home by the time Bella got there. But she had a later shift on Friday and, honestly, Bella didn't want to return to an empty house. It was dark by the time she finished filing her papers at the courthouse and she drove directly to the diner, pulling up in the parking lot and taking a moment to pull out her ponytail and let her hair down the way the girl liked it.

The place was mildly busy and she found the girl behind the counter with a coffeepot. She was serving some customer and she looked up with surprise and delight when Bella came in. Bella took a stool at the end of the counter and the girl came over with the coffeepot.

"Hey you," she said cutely. "What are you doing here, my shift isn't over for another hour."

The girl's uniform was a white blouse and a white pinny over a black skirt. Bella smiled at her. "Just missed you, I guess."

The girl was pouring her a cup of coffee. "Aww, that's so sweet," she said. "Hey, guess what?"

"What?"

"I get paid today, do you know what that means?"

Bella thought about it. She didn't know.

"Shopping!" the girl cried excitedly. "I've been wearing the same clothes for weeks."

"Weeks?"

"Well, one week. But you're missing the point. I have money to buy new clothes!"

There was a subtle squeal in her voice that drew a little attention. Bella looked about and turned back to the girl, chuckling at her excitement.

"How about money for some rent?"

The girl smiled brightly. "What rent? It's not like I'm any expense, I don't even eat." She lowered her voice and leaned on the countertop with her elbows. "And considering how much I put out, maybe _you_ should be paying _me_."

Bella blushed and didn't answer. The girl was bent at the hip and behind the counter there was a second waitress, a slightly chubby blonde, and she frowned at the girl's ass for a second before barking at her to get back to work.

"Alice," she said. "We have customers."

The girl raised up from the counter. "Oh, okay, I'll be right there," she said. The blonde shook her head and went back to scribbling something on a pad of tickets. The girl took up the coffeepot and turned back to Bella. "So can we go shopping on the weekend?" she asked. "I was thinking we could shop all day, blow the whole paycheck. What do you think? It'll be fun."

Bella nodded. "Sure."

"Great," giggled the girl. She went to turn and turned back. "Oh, and just so you know? Maybe you could use a wardrobe update as well."

Then she winked and sailed off with the coffeepot. Bella smiled at her, admiring the fit of her skirt, and sipped her coffee.

They set out the next morning and by lunchtime they had canvassed every clothing store in town, only browsing to begin with. Bella bumped into several people she knew slightly and she had to explain who Alice was, Alice smiling, giggling, chiming in with how lucky she was that Bella found her.

Bella was awkward to sit down and eat with the girl so she got a burrito to go and ate while they strolled down mainstreet. The sidewalks were wet from a brief shower earlier in the day and the sky was still cloudy. The girl talked about how she wished they could hold hands and the woman chuckled noncommittally, glancing at passers-by, cars in the street. They passed the only movie theatre in town and the girl got excited to see something, anything. Once they were inside and the lights had darkened she confided that she only wanted to get her alone so they could hold hands. They were the only two people in the entire cinema so they madeout as well, giggling in the back row and feeling each other up in the pale light of the bigscreen.

In the afternoon the girl set about making her purchases. Her paycheck wasn't as large as she might've hoped and she had to be frugal. She bought some tops and a pair of pale bellbottoms that she really liked and she found some hairclips and bracelets that she just had to have.

It was near closing time when they entered a store called Vanity. It was a store that specialized in clothes mostly for teenage girls and the majority of the wares featured a fine coat of dust. Forks wasn't the trendiest place in the world and the girls around town seemed to prefer jeans and raincoats over halters and miniskirts.

Alice, however, was quite in raptures. One of the first things she found was an off the shoulder tee with a lotusleaf collar, blood red in colour, and her eyes almost glazed at how perfect it was. She checked the price tag and she could not believe how cheap it was, literally could not. She bought it on the spot and coupled it with a pair of dark designer jeans that had a backpocket shaped like a loveheart and her final purchase came down to a miniskirt—but which?

She had plucked two of them from the rack, one of them black and sleek, the other pink and pleated, and she seemed to be truly conflicted over which was cuter. But it was the pink one to which her eyes kept returning. She held it to her hips and her heart seemed to soften.

"Gosh, I love pink," she was saying. "There's just something about it, isn't there? Something that says, Fuck you; I'm cute. What do you think? I'm running out of money."

Bella was standing there with a whole afternoon's worth of shopping bags hanging from one arm. "Get both," she said. "I'll pay for one."

"Oh, I can't let you do that."

"It's okay, I don't mind," Bella said. She passed the shopping bags into her other hand as if they were really heavy and added, "Especially if it'll save time."

"You're not bored are you?"

"Never been a clothes person."

The girl smiled mischievously and took her free hand. "Well, maybe you'll pay more attention if I let you help me try these on, hm? Come on."

The store was empty aside from the salesgirl behind the counter. She was reading a magazine and she didn't look up at the two women who went by with their hands clasped.

There was only one fitting room, a small cubicle in the back which didn't even have a door, just a curtain to close it off from the rest of the store.

The girl was already taking off her pants. She laid the black miniskirt on the chair in the corner and now she stepped into the pink one, boots and all. The material was plaid and pleated, a crosscheck of black and pink, and she looked like a funky schoolgirl, wriggling into the tiny thing and modelling her hips in the mirror at a cocky tilt.

"So what do you think?"

Bella was staring at the skirt and having a physical reaction. Maybe she was simply head over heels for the girl but she was honestly spellbound. "I love it," she said.

"The skirt or my butt?"

The girl giggled and flipped up the back of the skirt to flash her panties. Bella's heart skipped a beat but she was used to the girl's beguiling ways by now. A smirk appeared on her lips and she reached to put a hand under the skirt.

"Both," she said, copping a generous feel.

The girl giggled again and moved her rear into the touch, rubbing it up and down, almost as if it was the butt groping the hand. She made a soft moaning sound as if it was making her horny.

"Mmm," she said. "Wanna do me quickly?"

"What, here?"

"Sure, why not? Come on, I'll be quiet. Please?"

Bella chuckled and glanced back at the curtain. Dead silence out there and honestly she didn't even care. She turned back to the girl and added a second hand up the skirt, hiking it up. The girl smiled over her shoulder and bent a bit more, preening her posterior into the hands. Between her thighs there was a small wedge of pink underwear, pursed and softly cleft. Bella touched it with her fingertips. So soft it stopped her heart.

"Mmm," the girl said. "I love how you touch me."

Bella looked at her face in the mirror. Eyes closed, smiling, simply delighted at being touched. Bella smiled and stroked the cotton there. "You really like having sex, don't you?"

"I love it."

"Is it because you're a vampire?"

The girl's breathing stopped for a second. It was the first time either of them had mentioned the word since that day. The girl looked at her in the mirror for a second and then she shrugged, still squirming her hips into the hand.

"I don't know," she said. "Maybe. Maybe being a vampire makes you kind of slutty as well. It certainly prevents menopause. But I think it's mostly because I'm bored. When you're as old as I am, you realize that sex is really the only thing worth doing. You'd think it would get boring after a while, but it doesn't. I'd rather have sex than do anything in the world."

Bella was lowering the panties, just a little. Just below her ass. The girl was getting moist. She let her fingertips explore the silkiness there while her other hand caressed the smooth skin of her hip.

"How old are you exactly?" she asked.

"I don't know. I don't really remember."

"Were you always this beautiful?"

The girl giggled, her butt giving a little twitch, like a swish of an invisible tail. "Probably not," she said. "There's definitely something supernatural going on with my ass, isn't there?"

Bella chuckled in agreement. She was still caressing the girl's entrance but now she stopped and reached around to the front of the girl's pelvis. The girl raised up, flushed, smiling, and settled back against Bella and Bella held her from behind and began fingering her. The girl in the mirror was standing there with her legs apart slightly, pigeontoed like a child, her skirt hiked up and her panties down. She turned her face for a kiss and the woman obliged her, rubbing the front of her jeans into the girl's naked butt and pinching down on the girl's clit, grinding her into a hushed ecstasy there in the quiet cubicle.

In the end they bought the pink skirt.

It was raining again by the time they left the store and still raining when they got home. True to her word the girl had blown her entire paycheck on clothes and it was full dark outside by the time she was done rearranging the closet in the bedroom. Bella sat on the edge of the bed and watched with a warmth in her chest as the girl fussed about and arranged everything just so, colour coordinated, tops to pants to police uniforms.

When the girl was done she left the closet doors open and took a step back. Bella's things were on the left, a small collection of shirts and slacks, and Alice's things were on the right, a colourful array of tees and tops and jeans and skirts. She sighed happily and turned to Bella.

"Well, it's official," she said. "I've moved in."

Bella beamed at her and rose from the bed. "You certainly have."

"Any regrets so far?"

"Not yet."

"None at all?"

Bella had been looking into the closet and now she looked at the girl. She thought the girl was being cute but the girl only seemed to be acting cute. Her eyes were big and round and there seemed to be a genuine anxiety behind them. Bella smiled to set her at ease.

"Are you always this insecure?" she asked playfully.

The girl looked away, smiling, and gestured loosely as if to apologize. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's just…" She sighed again, this one longer and heavier. She reached into the closet to arrange some hangers there. "It sucks when every relationship you've ever been in—or will be in—is doomed before it even starts."

Bella didn't know what say to that. She stood there for a second, listening to the rain on the roof. The feeling of happiness was fading but perhaps it was being replaced by something more important. She opened her mouth to ask what the girl meant but then the girl giggled at the clothes.

"I got some cute things today, didn't I?"

For the rest of the night Bella was preoccupied by the girl's cryptic remarks. It wasn't the first time she had hinted at similar anxieties. Until now Bella had never felt ready to face the reality of what was to come in their relationship but now she thought she might be. If she wanted this relationship to continue, which she did, then maybe it was time to accept the girl for who—or what—she was.

After dinner that night they cuddled up on the couch and watched a sitcom on TV, the cat in Alice's lap and Bella's arm around her. The girl would giggle periodically. Bella would smile. Bella had to go to the bathroom at one point and both the girl and cat looked up as she rose from the couch. The girl watched her go and smiled when she came back, snuggling against her even closer as if to keep her from getting away again.

The rain was getting pretty heavy outside. It was almost louder than the TV. Bella held the girl and wondered how serious she was about her. Very serious. She could feel the seriousness in her chest like a second heart. She wanted the relationship to work and she wanted the girl to know that.

They had been silent for a while when Bella finally spoke.

"Hey," she said. "What did you mean before? When you said every relationship you've been in was doomed from the beginning?"

The girl looked at her and she seemed somewhat surprised, somewhat delighted, and somewhat scared all at the same time. In the end she decided, ironically, to brush it off.

"Oh, nothing," she said. "Don't listen to me."

Bella gave her shoulders a squeeze to let her know it was okay. "Seriously," she said. "I want to know."

"Why?"

"Well, because I can tell there's something bothering you. Something on your mind. I don't have a lot of experience with relationships, but I know communication is generally a good policy. So tell me. What do you think is going to go wrong? Is it me? Are you worried about me?"

"Not really."

"What then?"

"I don't know. Just everything."

"Like what?"

The girl sighed. She looked at the cat in her lap to check if it was asleep and shrugged. "Well, like feeding," she said. "I'm going to have to do it soon. Do you think you'll be able to handle it?"

Bella didn't answer right away. The girl noticed.

"See what I mean? And feeding's just the beginning."

Bella shook away the sense of surrealness that washed over her and forced herself to be rational. "Well, let's take it one step at a time," she said. "Tell me more about feeding."

"What do you want to know?"

"Well, to begin with, is it safe?"

"No."

"No?"

The girl shook her head. Bella didn't seem to understand. She looked at the girl and at the cat in her lap. She swallowed and looked at the girl again.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not safe," the girl said. "It's dangerous."

"How dangerous?"

"Very."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what if I can't stop? What if I keep going until…"

The girl trailed off and looked down sadly. She petted the cat and didn't continue. Bella's heart seemed to be beating faster and harder than the drum of rain outside.

"Are you saying I could die?"

The girl looked up and nodded. Her eyes were round and fragile. Bella stared at her. She still had an arm around her shoulders and now she took it away. The girl scooted backward on the couch, rousing the cat.

"See? You're already having second thoughts."

Bella shook her head and glanced at the TV. Another wave of surrealness. Discussing the possibility of dying from a vampire bite while chilling on the sofa after dinner. She turned back to the girl and shook her head again.

"I wouldn't call them second thoughts," she said. "Just thoughts. Has it ever happened before?"

"Has what happened?"

"Has anyone ever died? Being with you?"

The girl looked away. Her hand stopped stroking the cat. An icy feeling washed over Bella.

"Jesus," she whispered.

"I'm sorry."

"So, basically, you're a murderer."

The girl shot her a wounded glance. She still had the cat in her lap and now she set it down on the floor and drew up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, not looking at Bella.

"Do you really have to put it like that?" she whispered.

Bella frowned. She could feel her temper rising and swelling over the shock, as if she's been lied to in some way. "I don't have some way to put it," she said. "That's how it is."

"It's not like that, though."

"How many times has it happened?"

"I don't know."

"How can you not know?"

"I don't know."

The girl was getting sullen. A gale of laughter came from the TV, a hysterical laughtrack for a joke that probably wasn't even that funny. Bella grabbed the remote and turned it off. Sudden silence in the room. The rain loud on the roof. The girl glanced at her and spoke.

"I'm sorry," she said. "But you have to understand what it's like. It's not me. It's not my fault. I never wanted to hurt anyone, I just…"

She trailed off. The cat had been waiting to be picked up again but now it trotted off to the cat-basket in the corner and curled up there. The girl watched it settle and turned back to Bella.

"Look," she said. "I understand if this changes everything. I mean, you're a cop. You of all people understand the difference between right and wrong. I could make all the excuses I want, but in the end, it is what it is. I'm a vampire. People have died because of me. Because I was in their lives. And people will continue to die. As long as I'm in their lives. No matter how hard I fight against it, it's inevitable. It might even happen with you. And it's up to you whether or not you can accept that."

Bella looked at her. "Do I have a choice?"

"Of course you do," the girl said. "I could leave right now."

"And then what? Go to California and kill someone there?"

The girl didn't answer. She look down and bit her lip. Bella was looking at her, at this girl in her living room who was essentially confessing to murder, and shook her head.

"I can't even arrest you, can I?"

"No," said the girl. "No prison could contain me, anyway. And even if it could, I'd probably outlast the walls. Not to mention you have no evidence or reasonable suspicion."

"So the only way to stop you from hurting innocent people would be to kill you?"

The girl actually smiled at that. "Yes," she said. "But I wouldn't allow it. Not unless you could convince me to let you. I'd do it, if you were persuasive enough. I'm not afraid to die. I'm well aware the world would be a better place without me. I'm just too selfish to do anything about it."

Bella was shaking her head. "I can't believe this."

The girl watched her from the other side of the sofa. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and she was hugging them, crouched there like a little mouse. She blinked twice and very quietly she said:

"I told you I'm a vampire."

Bella looked at her sharply. "You also said you weren't evil."

"I'm not."

"I'm sorry, but killing people is evil."

"But it's not like that," she said, her voice so thin and small it was all but lost in the sound of the rain. "It's really not."

Bella looked away, shaking her head. The girl was almost in tears. She sat there for a second, frozen, and then she hopped off the sofa and ran upstairs.

Bella watched her go, looking over the backrest. The cat raised up in the basket at the commotion and watched the girl leave as well. Then it looked at the woman on the sofa, as if wondering what was going on. Bella looked away. She looked at the empty sofa cushion beside her and suddenly she felt very alone. She got up and followed the girl upstairs.

The girl was in the bedroom. She was standing at the open closet and she was stuffing her clothes into her backpack, her eyes speckled with tears. She ignored the woman and kept packing. Bella approached her and stopped her hands gently.

"Stop it," she said. "Just stop, okay?"

The girl stopped but she wouldn't look at her. She just stood there hugging the backpack, blinking at the open closet. Bella took the backpack from her and put it on the floor.

"Look," she said. "Let's just calm down, okay? Whatever you've been doing, you've been doing it a long time. Me freaking out isn't going to change anything."

The girl looked at her. She was still holding one of her tops, the red one that she loved so much. Bella went and sat on the edge of the bed and looked at the window over the headboard. The curtains were still open and the glass was covered in rain. She turned back to the girl and took a deep breath.

"If you don't feed from me, you'll feed from someone else, right?"

"I have to."

Bella nodded, waves of dizziness and disbelief washing over her. "Then you'll have to do it with me," she said. "I don't want you taking chances with anyone else. Not if I can help it."

"But do you want me to?" the girl asked softly.

Bella looked up. "Do I _want_ you to?"

The girl stood there with her red top, clutching it to her chest sadly. "It's important to me," she said. "I wouldn't be comfortable if you didn't want me to."

"How could I possibly want you to?"

The girl didn't answer for a minute. She hung the top back in the closet and then she came over and sat beside Bella. Close, but not touching. She was an inch away and the space between them seemed to crackle like electricity.

"Well," she said softly. "Because I really like you. And it would mean a lot to me. I know my feelings are wrong, but they're still my feelings. I can't help it. I want you."

"How dangerous is it?"

"Not so much in the beginning. The risk increases with repetition. Blood is very addictive. The more I drink, the more I need. Until…"

Bella snorted once, shaking her head. "I'm starting to see what you mean by doomed."

"Yeah," whispered the girl, her voice soft and sad. "It's like a curse. Everybody I've ever gotten close to has left me. One way or another."

Bella looked at her. She was looking down at her lap. Shoulders slumped, a distant look on her face. It was a kind of sorrow that Bella had never seen before. A sorrow not of one thing in particular but simply of how things are. How they always had been, how they would always be.

"When do you need to do this?" she asked.

The girl looked at her. "Tomorrow night?"

Bella nodded. A slight relief came into the girl's face but it wasn't a smile. They sat there in silence, side by side, not touching. Whole sheets of rain were gusting against the side of the house and at length the girl spoke again.

"Do you still like me?"

A timid question, half whispered. Bella looked at her.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want you to be with me just to keep me from feeding from someone else," the girl said. "I can't do this if you don't like me."

Bella was still looking at her. At her pretty face and her round eyes afraid of the answer. A warmth was spreading in her chest and the truth is she was probably in love with this girl.

"I don't know," she said. "This is a lot to take in."

The girl looked away. She saw her backpack on the floor and rose from the bed, as if to start packing again. But the woman took her hand and pulled her back onto the bed. They looked at each other silently, no sound but the rain, and the woman drew her into a hug and held her. The girl buried her face into her neck and nuzzled the area there where she would bite. Bella stroked her back and looked out the window. Rain was running down the glass like tears.

—


	4. Chapter 4

—

Chapter 4:

—

Bella didn't sleep that night. She lay in bed for a long time with the girl keeping her distance under the covers beside her. Then she got up and went into the kitchen.

Until morning she sat at the kitchen table and drank coffee. The girl had followed and took a seat opposite. She sat quietly, still, trying not to be obtrusive. They didn't speak. Bella stirred her coffee with a spoon but she drank it black and there was nothing to stir. It was going cold. She was tired and she didn't know how many cups she'd already had. She watched the inky fluid dish and tremble in the heavy white mug and when she looked up there was a gray and grudging sunlight in the window.

The girl was still sitting there. She seemed to be waiting for something. Bella had been trying to think but there really wasn't much to think about.

Eventually the cat came trotting into the room and the girl got up to feed her. Bella was wrapped in a nightrobe against the morning chill but the girl wore only a big white t-shirt that fell just below her hips. Bella watched her move about the kitchen, fetching a tin of food from a cupboard and opening it at the counter. The hem of the shirt flowed about her thighs and the fringe of her panties like a tiny gown. Her legs were bare aside from her socks and the cat was rubbing it's head against her ankle and purring audibly. The girl set the small plate of food down in the corner and then she came back and sat at the kitchen table.

Bella lowered her eyes to the coffee for a moment and then lifted them back up. She was feeling bad about everything and too tired to know why. The girl was just sitting there and she felt bad about that too.

"You don't have to hang around," she said.

"That's okay," said the girl. "I don't mind."

Bella nodded and looked at her coffee. It was half empty and not even warm anymore. She sighed and looked back at the girl.

"I'm sorry about that shit I said last night," she said. "I shouldn't have freaked out like that."

The girl shook her head softly. There was something subdued about her but it wasn't sleepiness. "You didn't say anything wrong."

Bella nodded and looked at the coffee again. She took a sip and tasted it. Bitter. Hard to swallow. She licked her lips and looked at the girl.

"What does blood taste like?" she asked.

"Excuse me?"

"What does it taste like? Blood."

The girl hesitated. She looked aside for a moment, as if she was embarrassed, and gave a little shrug. "It's hard to explain," she said. "Have you ever been dehydrated?"

"I don't think so."

"Well, it's something like that," she said, nodding vaguely, her voice lowering to a whisper. "Imagine wandering in a desert for days and days and then finally stumbling across an oasis. Imagine what it would taste like, that first sip of water. Imagine the relief. The elation. Imagine your entire life sustained by that one little sip. That's what it tastes like."

Bella nodded and tapped the rim of her mug with a fingernail. Then she sighed and pushed the cup away.

"It's gonna be pretty awkward," she said.

But the girl smiled and shook her head. "No, it won't."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm going to seduce you."

"Oh."

The girl giggled once, softly. Then she rose to her feet and came around the table. She wrapped an arm around the woman from behind, hugging her gently, and leaned to whisper in her ear.

"So don't worry," she said. "By midnight tonight you'll be dying to let me have my way with you. No matter how wrong it is, or how scared you are. I'll make you want it."

Bella blushed at the breath on her ear. The girl placed a kiss in her hair and nuzzled her with her cheek. Bella turned her face slightly.

"What about you?" she asked.

"What about me?"

"You seemed pretty hesitant last night."

"I still am," whispered the girl, her voice muffled in her hair. "But it's not like I have a choice. I hate what I am and I hate what I have to do to you, but in the end…it's what I live for."

"Do you want to get it over with now?"

"No. I hate to treat it like a chore. I like to make it special."

"Special?"

Bella had her head tilted back and the girl was kissing the area in her neck where she had bitten that first night together. The skin there was tingling.

"Mmhm," she murmured. "It's important. Not only for me, but for you as well. Making it special is a way of showing you how much your acceptance means to me. How grateful I am for your consent."

Bella's eyes were closed. She was so tired and the girl's lips felt so soft on her neck.

"It's not necessary," she said.

"It is."

"Well. What did you have in mind?"

The girl giggled and released the embrace. Bella's eyes opened. The girl came around and took a perch on the edge of the table and folded her legs fetchingly, one over the other.

"That depends," she said. "May I borrow your creditcard?"

Bella's eyes flickered over the girl's pretty little legs and a small smirk tugged at her lips.

"I'll pay you back," the girl added. "I'm just a little short since yesterday."

Bella put her hand on the girl's thigh and caressed the smoothness there. Then she leaned and placed a kiss on the girl's kneecap. Then another higher along her leg. Then another and another until the girl swivelled around and unfolded her legs and opened them up to allow access between them.

Afterwards Bella handed over her purse with all her creditcards and cash inside of it before going for a shower. When she came back into the kitchen she found the girl on the phone, reciting the creditcard number. Bella didn't know what it was for and didn't ask. She simply went over and touched the girl from behind, slipping a hand into her panties and kissing her shoulder, causing the girl to giggle into the receiver and wriggle backwards into the touch. She hung up the phone shortly after and spun into a kiss.

The car keys were in the purse as well and soon they were out of the house and cruising down the highway toward Seattle. The girl was driving. Bella didn't ask if she had a current licence and she didn't asked where they were going. She sat back in the car seat and blinked slowly at the blur of trees in the window. They didn't speak much and soon they were in the city, headed downtown. It was near noon and mostly sunny. As they approached their destination the girl explained that she'd made reservations at the Sheraton Hotel. She asked if Bella had ever stayed there and Bella shook her head. The girl said she was going to love it.

The room was on the twenty fifth floor with a view over downtown Seattle. There were two bedrooms, each with a bathroom, and a living area bigger than Bella's whole house back in Forks. They wandered through the rooms, Bella slightly in awe. The carpets were beige and the couch and the overstuffed armchair were cream coloured leather. A vase of daffodils sat on the polished coffeetable and the chandelier in the ceiling was polished brass. The dining table was arrayed with six upholstered leather dining chairs and in the centre was a small sculpture of a bronze bowl of fruit. Beyond the bay window skyscrapers stood sparkling in the sun and the bright blue sea lagged and stirred in the distance. Bella looked about with her hands on her hips and nodded.

"Nice room," she said.

The girl giggled. She had packed a few things into her knapsack back at the house and now she plonked it on the dining table. "It's not a room," she said. "It's a suite."

There was black and gleaming grandpiano in the corner. Bella wandered over to it and ran her fingers across the keys idly. She pressed one. A high note that seemed to tremble inside her.

"Nice suite," she said.

Then she sighed and seemed to lose all curiosity. The girl was watching her and they were silent for a moment before she spoke.

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

Bella shook her head and yawned. It was a big yawn and she covered her mouth with one hand. The girl giggled at the display and grabbed her other hand.

"You're so cute when you're sleepy," she said. "Come on."

The girl took her into the bedroom and began undressing her. She was unbuttoning her shirt and she didn't resist as the girl shucked it from her shoulders and took it off and left it on the carpet. She then unbuttoned her pants and unzipped them and squatted down at her feet as she lowered them to her ankles. She then removed her shoes and socks together with the pants and rose back up.

The bed was a deluxe king-size with a white silk duvet and the girl pulled back the covers and ushered the woman under them with a playful spank on the back of her underwear. Bella climbed into the bed. The girl went to turn off the lights and close the curtains. Bella expected the girl to climb into bed with her but the girl only came back and tucked her in and placed a kiss on her brow, gently, like a mother.

"I've got some shopping to do," she said, "so you get some sleep, okay? You'll need your strength. Tonight is going to be a big step in our relationship. For better or worse."

She was stroking the hair away from Bella's face. The girl smiled and gave her one more kiss and then she got up and left the room, closing the door halfway behind her.

Bella sighed when she was gone and stared up at the ceiling for a while in the dim light leaking through the closed curtains. Then she rolled onto her side and pulled the covers over her shoulder.

She hadn't slept since yesterday but sleep didn't come quickly. It occurred to her that she might actually die tonight but she wasn't really afraid. Worried, perhaps. But not afraid. It was a weird feeling. She thought about the girl and she really couldn't think of a single thing to be afraid of. She was too cute. Too sweet. It was hard to believe anything bad could happen with something so adorable in her arms. They had only known each other for a week but Bella had never been happier. Even now. Here in this hotel room, which had probably drained half her bank account. In this bed where she might die later on. Even now the feeling in her heart was something she didn't want to lose.

It was dark when she woke up. The sun had gone down and there were only cracks of light in the curtains. Bella sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

The rest of the suite was empty. She wandered through the rooms in her underwear, looking for sign of the girl. The backpack wasn't on the dining table anymore.

She came back in the bedroom and threw on her shirt and her pants. She didn't bother buttoning the shirt. She went into the bathroom to pee and stopped when she saw two black dresses hanging from the gold-plated shower rod. One of them was small and short, the other was longer and elegant. She took the material between her thumb and forefinger and kneaded it softly. It felt like velvet. There was crystal beading in the neckline and it was the most beautiful dress she had ever seen. She draped it over her hand and watched the light shimmer in the stark black cloth. It was the first piece of clothing that had ever stirred her. She was about to take it off the hanger to drape it against herself when she heard a door open and close in the front room. It was probably the girl. She let the dress fall gently and looked it over one more time. Then she went out into the bedroom.

The girl was standing by the empty bed and she jumped slightly when the woman emerged from the bathroom, as if surprised to see her.

"Oh my god," she said in a cute little gasp-giggle. "There you are. I saw the bed was empty and I thought you were gone."

Bella smiled. "I'm still here," she said. "What's in the bag?"

The girl was carrying a small bag by a string, a kinky cardboard bag with pink stripes. She grinned at the question and upended the bag on the bed. Pink tissue paper spilled out onto the quilt along with several bits of black lace.

"Ta da," said the girl. "What do you think?"

One of the pieces was clearly a garter belt and another was a black pushup. Bella glanced at the girl and pointed at the pile awkwardly.

"Is that for tonight?"

"Mmhm."

Bella picked up one of the articles and held it by a string as if it were poisonous. It appeared to be a pair of embroidered panties. The crotch was split and there was a little black bow on the waistline. Bella gulped and set them down again.

"Sexy," she said.

The girl giggled and gathered it all back into the bag. Bella was sporting a mild blush and she wasn't at all sure how she would look in that kind of stuff.

"Are you hungry yet?" the girl asked.

It seemed like an odd question. Bella thought about it for a second and found herself nodding. "Actually, yeah," she said. "I'm starving."

"Then let's get dressed," said the girl, slinging the little pink bag over her shoulder. "I made reservations somewhere special."

Bella gave the bag a skeptical glance as the girl went past and then followed the girl into the bathroom.

They took turns in the shower quickly, Bella first then Alice, swapping places without even turning off the water. Alice was chatting nonstop about her shopping adventure and Bella noticed how she didn't mention any prices. She examined the price tags on the dresses while the girl was in the shower and she thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she didn't make it through the night.

Afterwards they assembled in the bedroom, clad in towels, and the girl gave them both a quick manicure and a pedicure, painting their fingernails and toenails a dark scarlet and gently blowing them dry.

Finally it was time to get dressed. To Bella's surprise—and relief— they weren't going to wear any of the lingerie for dinner. Instead she found herself struggling into a pair of control top pantyhose and a sleek full body slip. She had never worn anything like it before and she was subtly amazed at the improvements to her figure. Her tummy was trimmed, her hips were rounded, and there was a lift and firmness to her ass that hadn't been there before. She posed in the mirror on her toes, slightly breath taken. The pantyhose was shiny and sheer black and her legs looked so smooth and silky she even turned herself on.

The girl was impressed as well and gave her many compliments as she put her own things on. Her own perfect little body required much less prep and all she wore for underwear was a nylon thong and a strapless bra with silicone padding to add some extra shape to her chest.

With their bodies trimmed and neatened they finally donned their gowns, helping each other into them and zipping each other up. The girl wore a black satin cocktail dress with chiffon skirts that flowed about her knees. Her feet were equipped with open-toed sandals with black leather straps. She wore them with the balance of a ballroom dancer and did a twirl on the spot to show how the dress flared about her thighs. Bella smiled and hitched up her bosom a little bit. It was a sweetheart neckline and the heavy velvet was almost like a corset. The chest was see-through under a sparkly collar of crystal beading and all of her back was exposed. The gown was long enough to trail on the ground and the skirt was split up one leg. She was wearing black leather pumps and she poked one of them out from the slit of the dress so she could admire herself in the mirror, smoothing her hands against her velvety waist, unexpectedly happy with herself. The girl said she looked incredible.

Finally the girl sat her at the dresser and did her hair, buzzing about behind her with bobby pins and a hairbrush, telling a tale of how she had apprenticed at a salon in the seventies and even bought it and owned it for a few years before she had to move on. Bella didn't ask why she had to move on but she had a pretty good idea. She kept her eyes on the mirror and watched as the girl styled her hair into an artfully messy bun that left wisps of dark hair to frame her pale face. She was getting more beautiful by the second and by the time the girl had done her makeup she looked like a different woman entirely. The girl had even rented diamond earrings from a jewellery store which dangled from her ears like stars.

The girl did her own hair and makeup but she required little, as perfect as she was. She had picked up a rhinestone hairclip while shopping that afternoon and she set it in her hair just above her ear after applying a light layer of makeup to her already gorgeous face. Bella smiled at her in the mirror. The girl smiled back with lips that were red and glossy. She looked just like a pixie. A dark little pixie.

It had taken them over an hour hour to get ready. Bella hadn't eaten since yesterday and her stomach churned with both hunger and nervousness as they descended into the lobby. She couldn't remember the last time she had worn heels.

They took a cab to the restaurant, an outdoor bistro on Elliott Bay called the Palomino. The premises was strictly formal wear and she was relieved that they weren't overdressed. Many heads turned as the hostess—also wearing a black evening dress—led them among the tables and seated them at a small table for two beside a fountain that featured a stone mermaid reclining on a rock with a water jug on her shoulder. The table was covered with a white silk table cloth and in the centre there was a slender cutglass vase in which leaned a red rosebloom. Bella shuffled her chair a little bit. The cool night air moved along her arms and shoulders but she wasn't cold.

A waiter soon arrived and inquired what they would like to drink, addressing himself to Bella. Bella had no idea. She was clearly the older of the pair but it was the girl who cleared her throat politely and ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir. Ordinarily she might've looked too young to drink but the dress and makeup had done much to mature her appearance and in the soft light of the lamps she looked more like a young woman than a girl. The waiter left them with menus and Bella practically drooled at the selection. She didn't know what to get, it all looked good. The girl noticed her difficulty and advised that a game dish would go nicely with the wine.

The waiter came back and Bella ordered the Capellini Pomodoro, a chicken dish that looked absolutely delicious, and Alice ordered a Caprese Salad, simply for the sake of fitting in.

They ate together under the stars with the sound of the fountain and a string band in the background. It was a very romantic atmosphere and most of the other tables were taken by couples. Bella sipped her wine and wondered if her and the girl looked like a couple. They seemed to get a few odd looks, two women alone at a table in a romantic restaurant, but she didn't let it bother her. The girl was picking at her salad like a rabbit. Bella watched her and she could feel herself falling in love with her. She really could. But then she remembered the girl was a vampire and there was a chance their relationship might not even outlast the night. She lowered her eyes to her pasta and pushed it about the plate. Funny to think it might be her last meal.

After they ate the girl convinced her to order some dessert. Bella tried to demure but eventually she succumbed and ordered a chocolate fondant that was served broken open with the dark and creamy centre oozing onto the plate and garnished with powdered sugar and sliced strawberry.

While Bella ate Alice gazed across the restaurant where several couples were swaying on the dancefloor and when Bella was done Alice asked her if she wanted to dance. Bella was nervous but she didn't even try to refuse. She placed her hand in Alice's and Alice led her out onto the floor.

They got some strange looks and even the members of the band glanced twice from the stage. They were dressed in tuxedos and playing violins or cellos, one of them at a piano. Bella ignored the attention and focused on Alice. Alice seemed to do the same. She had her hand on Bella's shoulder and Bella had a hand at her waist. Alice's dress had a black satin sash around the middle and Bella could feel it under her fingers. Bella's dress was dragging on the floor. She wasn't used to moving in her heels but they were only swaying. A crescent moon hung high in the sky and there were stars everywhere among the dark tufts of cloud.

Alice smiled at her. The smile made Bella feel beautiful. Alice's eyes roamed up and down Bella's gown and settled again on Bella's eyes.

"You look so beautiful in that dress," she said. "I can't stop staring at you."

Bella blushed and chuckled softly, as if she was only accepting the compliment because she had no choice. "Thanks," she said. "I don't think I've ever been dressed up like this before."

"Never?"

"Well, maybe at prom. But that was nothing like this." She looked at the band in their tuxedos and at the bar nearby with its gold and marble bartop. She looked toward the parking area where expensive sports cars were being parked by valets in red jackets. She snorted once at all this opulence around her and turned back to Alice. "How much is all this gonna cost me, anyway?"

The girl gave her a guilty smile. "Quite a bit," she said. "But like I said, I'll be paying you back as soon as I can, so try not to worry about it."

"What if I don't make it?"

"What do you mean?"

"What if I die? I guess you won't have to pay me back then, will you?"

Bella had only been joking but Alice's smile immediately began to slip away. Bella was sad to see it go. She hadn't meant to ruin the moment like that.

"Sorry," she said. "I shouldn't have said that."

"It's alright."

"No, it's not. Truth is, I'm not even afraid."

The girl looked up. "You're not?"

Bella shook her head, even smiling. She was holding the girl's tiny hand aloft as they danced and she gave it a caress with her thumb.

"Nope," she said. "I guess I should be, but I'm not. I mean, let's be honest. Before I met you, I was alone and miserable. Then you came into my life and suddenly…suddenly I'm happy. So, I don't know. I don't know if it's right or wrong, or if I might die tonight. But I don't care. Because I like you, and…I don't know. I just like you."

The girl's eyes filled with moisture, as if that was all she wanted to hear. The stars above were glistening in those big brown pools and her voice came out slightly strained.

"You know what the sad thing is?"

"What?"

"The more accepting you are, the harder it'll be to resist," she whispered. A tear dropped onto her cheek and a wet giggle escaped her. "I have a terrible habit of taking advantage."

The girl took her hand from Bella's shoulder and dabbed her eyes with a knuckle and in those tears Bella caught a glimpse of what must be like. To long for someone's blood. For their life. It should've frightened her but it didn't. She actually chuckled it off.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to take my chances," she said. "Just promise me you'll take care of Snowflake if anything happens, alright? Or at least take her to a shelter."

She was half joking with this as well but this time it made the girl smile. She put her hand back on Bella's shoulder and Bella gazed at her for a moment.

"You ready to go back to the hotel?" she asked.

"I think so," the girl said. "Are you?"

Bella nodded, smoothly, smiling, a strange feeling building in the pit of her stomach. "Yeah," she said. "I think I'm even excited."

The girl searched her eyes. Then she nodded as well.

They finished the dance and took one last cocktail at the bar while they waited for a cab. It was a quiet ride back to the hotel. They sat in the back with Bella's arm around Alice and Alice's head resting on Bella's bare shoulder. Their hands were clasped in Bella's lap with their fingers entwined and Bella couldn't tell which hand was hers. The driver kept glancing in the rearview, as if perhaps he wanted to remind them about their seatbelts, but he didn't say anything.

It was near midnight when they got back to the hotel. They rode the elevator to their room and the elevator attendant likewise directed a glance or two at their reflections in the polished gold panels.

The girl unlocked their room with the keycard and the first thing she did was order a bottle of champagne from room service. Bella didn't know what to expect and she sort of just stood there like a nervous date while the girl went about arranging and lighting scented candles all over the room, on the mantle and the nightstand and the dresser and on the little sidetable under the window. She had closed the curtains and switched off the lamps and the room was lit entirely in a soft orange glow.

The champagne arrived in an icebucket of sterling silver. Alice bought it with her into the bathroom and set it on the tiled shelf by the gleaming white bathtub. The faucet was gold plated and she spun the hot water knob, testing the water with her fingers, adding some complimentary bubblebath and bathoil beads. While the bathtub filled she lit three more candles and arranged them by the icebucket before flipping off the light and cloaking them in an orange gloom. Together they stripped out of their gowns in the candlelight and together they climbed into the tub, descending into the bubbles with the woman reclining against the porcelain and the girl reclining in her arms. They relaxed for a while and whispered and petted each other under the warm and soapy water. Bella's hair was still pinned into a bun and only the wisps at the nape of her neck got wet. She was sipping champagne from a crystal flute and she had her legs wrapped around the girl between them. Aside from their voices the only sound was the soft rill of water as their bodies moved and shifted and rubbed together under the bubbles.

Bella sighed and set down the champagne, immediately putting the free arm around Alice's waist. She held her and turned her nose slightly to Alice's hair. Even over the soap and bubbles and the scented candles she could smell how sweet it was. She sighed again, holding her.

"This is actually really nice," she said.

The girl shifted happily. "I know."

"Have you done this before?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know. With other women."

"Well, not always. Only sometimes."

"I guess I'm kind of jealous."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I guess because I'm really nothing special to you. Just another chick."

The girl eased out of her embrace and turned to look at her, her eyes big and earnest. "That's not true at all," she said. "You're plenty special."

Bella smiled without answering. The girl had a tuft of bubbles on her shoulder and Bella brushed it away affectionately. The girl caught her eyes and repeated herself.

"You are," she said. "Seriously. I mean, do you think I'm this honest with every woman I meet? This attracted? Because I'm not. I honestly can't remember the last time I've felt this way about someone. You're very special to me. You're incredible to me."

The girl was cupping her cheek. Bella smiled and allowed the warm feelings to flow through her. The girl leaned in and pressed their lips together, holding them there for a moment before breaking the kiss sadly.

"And that's what makes it so dangerous," she said. "You have no idea how badly I want you."

Her voice dipped to a soft whisper. Bella caressed her hip under the water.

"Is it going to hurt?" she asked.

"The bite will," the girl said softly. "But the pain will fade quickly as the venom enters your system."

"Venom?"

"That's what I call it. It's secreted from my fangs. Like a snake. Or a spider. Creepy, huh?"

She seemed guilty that she hadn't mentioned it before and slightly ashamed. Bella actually laughed at the idea of this soapy bundle of girlishness between her legs being poisonous.

"What does it do?" she asked.

"The venom?"

"Yeah."

"Well, actually, it's properties are similar to certain amphetamines. I analysed a sample in a chemistry class once. It's chemical makeup is actually quite close to MDMA."

"MDMA? What, you mean like Ecstasy?"

The girl nodded reluctantly. "Almost," she said. "Only purer. And delivered directly into the bloodstream, rather than ingested as a tablet. The effects are almost instant. You'll feel a sense of euphoria and heightened intimacy, both of which help to pacify the victim. You'll also experience some mild psychedelia. All that combined with the sudden blood loss, and…"

The girl trailed off, waiting for a reaction. Bella was slightly stunned.

"The sensation can be highly addictive," the girl went on softly. "It's what keeps the victim coming back, I guess. That first night we were together, you passed out before you really felt anything. But tonight…tonight will be different. Tonight will be slow. And savouring." She said all this with a low hunger in her voice and then she shook her head quickly as if to snap herself out of it. "You should just get out of it while you can," she said. "I'm not worth the risk. All I do is destroy lives. I'm a leech. It's me who's not special, I'm just…"

She was getting upset and almost in tears. Bella smiled and caressed her waist to calm her down.

"Hey," she cooed. "Don't say that, okay?"

"It's true."

"No, it's not. Anyway, we went through this last night. I found you and I'm going to take care of you. Simple as that. You let me worry about the risk, okay? You can't help what you are. And whatever that is, I'll deal with it. One step at a time. So let's just get through tonight, alright? Then we'll worry about everything else."

The girl almost seem to melt at her words. A small little sob of happiness came out of her and the threw her arms around her neck tightly, sloshing the water and pressing their wet breasts together.

"Thank you," she whispered. "I've been waiting so long to meet someone like you."

Bella held her and stroked her back tenderly.

The water was almost cool when they finally climbed out of the tub. They towelled away the bubbles from their legs and dried themselves in the dim light of the candles and then the girl leaned and blew them out.

The candles in the bedroom seemed to have intensified and the room was filled with warmth and a scent of lavender. Alice sorted their lingerie on the bed and instructed Bella how to put it on. Both sets black lace, both sets exactly matching. Bella was stepping into her first ever thong panty with a feeling somewhere between excitement and terror. She pulled the flimsy bit of lace up over her hips and it literally covered nothing, as crotchless panties were designed to. Alice already had hers on and she showed Bella how to adjust the split in that tiny triangle of black lace to properly expose and accentuate her ladyarea. Bella fought back the queasy excitement and did the same, making sure the front panel was fully parted around her entrance. She really hoped she didn't die tonight. It would be so embarrassing to die in something like this.

Next were the bras. Padded plunge pushups, designed to maximise cleavage. Bella's breasts were naturally quite large and she wore a size 32E that bunched her bosom to monstrous proportions. The black lace embroidery was rough under her hands as she made little adjustments to the fit. She was looking down and her bust was so huge she couldn't see her toes. The girl made a few wisecracks about how jealous she was as she put on her own bra. It was much smaller but it bundled her small breasts very nicely. After that they sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on their stockings, extending their legs one at a time and smoothing the seams with their hands. They were thighhigh and sheer black. Smooth as silk. The garter belts were next and they hitched them up onto their waists and clipped them to the tops of their stockings. All that was left was their shoes but Alice did Bella's makeup first, sitting her at the dresser and applying it even heavier and sexier than when they went out to dinner, even gluing fake eyelashes to her upper eyelids and layering them with thick black mascara. She painted her mouth with a dark red lipstick that felt as rich and thick as butter and then she dusted over her face with foundation before highlighting her cheekbones with a light shade of champagne that complimented her pale complexion. Alice did her own makeup as well, just as heavy, and Bella watched as her face transformed from a pretty girl with pretty features to a sexy little thing with dark fuck-me eyes. Finally they rose from the dresser and put their shoes on, Bella in black pumps, Alice in strappy sandals, and then they posed in the mirror to check themselves out.

Bella's hair was down and dark around her shoulders and if she had been shocked to see herself in an evening dress she was simply stunned now. In her lingerie and makeup and in the dim light of the candles she seemed erotic and faintly wanton, like a fallen angel. The girl smiled at her in the mirror and turned to face her. She gave her body a brief examination, first with her eyes and then with her hands, placing them at her hips and lifting them to her bra and stroking the embroidery, eyeing the bunch of her breasts with her face flushed and full of approval before lifting those darkened orbs to her face. Bella smiled shyly and Alice wrapped her arms around her neck and pulled her into a kiss, parting her painted lips with her own and touching together their tongues, their embrace captured in all its lace and loveliness in the dim reflection of the mirror like some fabled lesbian ideation out of a Sapphic sonnet.

Together they climbed onto the bed with their hands clasped and together they knelt in the centre of the mattress and kissed each other's mouths, moaning and feeling up each other's bodies with their hands. Bella took two handfuls of Alice's ass, dimpling into it with her polished red fingernails. Alice lowered the strap of Bella's bra and sucked on the exposed nipple for a moment before licking lasciviously across the whole mound and putting the strap back up and resuming the kiss.

Finally the girl laid her down and deepened the kiss even further. Bella had her eyes closed and she could feel Alice's hand holding her face and Alice's tongue in her mouth. Her heart was beating hard against her ribcage and she did her best to encourage the girl with her hands, stroking them up and down her back, accepting all of her tongue and moaning for more. They were rubbing their bodies together and eventually they reached between each other's legs and began fingering each other through the gaps in their underwear. They were both slick and wet and soon they were breathing too fast to maintain the kiss. They looked into each other's eyes in the candlelight and groaned at the same time. They were moving their hips into each other's fingers and panting into each other's mouths, eyes locked and lidded, urging each other closer and closer until finally they came, together, at the same time with small moans that were muffled and silenced as their lips met in another kiss.

They made love for hours that night, surrounded by candles in the centre of the bed like the participants of some ritual, moving in concert and mostly without words as they read and replied to each other's needs and wants in each other's eyes, stirring and subsiding again in a gentle heave of arms and breasts like languid dreamcreatures. Bella was on her back with her legs open and Alice was laying facefirst between them, cupping her butt and lapping at her entrance through the split in her panties, licking it over and over and over again until the woman squirmed and came with the spikes of her heels tangled in the bedsheet. Alice continued to kiss her body, the insides of her thighs above the tips of her stockings, her tummy below the black frill the garter belt, the soft hills of her breasts where they almost burst from the bra, trailing the kisses higher until she was kissing her mouth.

Between orgasms they petted and whispered. Alice poured Bella some champagne and watched her drink it and then she took it away and laid her down again. She talked about how beautiful her body was and began grinding on it with her hips, first on one of her thighs until she left a slick stain in the stocking, and then higher on her chest, grinding herself on the rough embroidery of her bra until she pushed the breasts out of the cups and then she grinded on the breasts themselves, wetting them with her arousal as if to mark them. Bella watched her enjoying herself and finally Alice moved back between her legs and positioned herself there, aligning their clits through the gaps in their underwear and grinding them together until they came, gazing into each other's eyes with their fingers entwined and their chests heaving as they shared the orgasm that burst in that tiny space between them.

There was only half a glass of champagne left and the icebucket had completely melted. Bella drank it in a gulp or two and realized dimly she was probably drunk. She could hardly keep her eyes open she was so tired. The girl was kissing her hip.

"I love your body," she whispered. "I could just eat it all up."

Bella laid back on a pillow with a forearm over her head and smiled with her breasts bulging above her crumpled bracups. Several of the candles had burnt out and it was almost dark in the room.

"Go ahead," she said. "I'm ready."

The girl realized she was talking about feeding and her face went a little grave, even as the hunger flashed in her dark eyes.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

Bella nodded languidly and reached to pull the girl on top of her. "I was always ready," she said. "But I want you to do it now. Now is perfect."

The girl was between Bella's legs and Bella was wrapping her arms around her, holding her close. It really did feel perfect, regardless of what the consequences might be. She was gazing at the girl boldly, like something hypnotized, and the girl licked her lips.

"Will you hold me?" she asked.

Bella smiled at the question. She was already holding her and she tightened her arms even further.

"Of course I'll hold you," she said. "Just do it, okay? You don't need to be afraid. I want this, just like you do. Whatever happens, it's not your fault. I wouldn't blame you, even if something goes wrong. So just do it, okay? Don't even speak. Just go ahead. It's okay."

As she spoke she was guiding the girl's head into the nook of her neck but the girl resisted for a moment and looked into her eyes.

"Thank you," she whispered. "You really are special."

Bella smiled and eased the girl's head toward her head, her hand threaded in the girl's short black hair. Finally the girl's lips landed on the soft flesh of her throat. Bella closed her eyes and stroked the girl's back encouragingly. She could feel the girl open her mouth. She could feel her fangs graze her skin. Her heart began to race and—

The girl bit her.

—


	5. Chapter 5

—

Chapter 5:

—

Bella didn't wake till morning. The candles in the room had burnt out into little stubs of cold white wax and there was only a dim sunlight showing through the closed windowdrapes.

Her eyes fluttered open and the first thing she saw was Alice. She was stroking Bella's hair and gazing into her face. All her makeup was smudged and cracked but that only made her even more beautiful. Her lipstick was smeared over her mouth and her mascara had clumped in her eyelashes and there was a long black streak across her cheek. Her face was filled with a timid sort of anxiety, like a harlot in love, and her voice came out in barely a whisper.

"How do you feel?" she asked.

Bella blinked languidly and even the blink was a strain. She was exhausted and dizzy and her mouth was parched dry and her head seemed to be pounding from the inside out. She felt like she'd been to a kegger and drank the whole keg and then attempted to break the keg over her head. Her neck stung like a hornet and there was a stinging sensation between her legs as well. But she took one look at the girl's face, at this sexy little thing that had done all this to her, and a slow smile moved over her mouth.

"Pretty good," she croaked.

Something about her voice or her tone caused the girl's eyes to lit up in a mixture of joy, delight, relief, and amusement. A giggle bubbled out of her. Then another. Bella giggled as well and then they collapsed together under the covers and giggled together, tangled in the bloodstained bedsheet and the sticky scraps of their lingerie.

They made love before even getting out of bed, careful to keep their mouths to themselves and use only their hands. Alice then fetched Bella a bottle of chilled spring water from the little refrigerator under the wet bar and Bella tore it open and drank over half in a single gulp. The liquid touched her tongue with a feeling like euphoria and she wondered if that was how the girl felt last night when she finally tasted her blood. Alice was stirring about the room in her underwear, opening the curtains and gathering up the candles. Bella watched her and drank the rest of the water, smiling to herself at the sheer outrageous presence of her, flittering about the room in the fresh light of morning dressed in nothing more than bits of black lace and a torn black stocking. The water made her feel a little better and once it was gone she called the girl back to bed and made love to her one more time.

Checkout time was noon and soon they were on the road back to Forks. It didn't rain and it was sunny the whole way. Alice drove and Bella rode home in the same attitude as yesterday, gazing out the window only this time with a smile and a pleasant throb in her neck.

Bella was weak for days and had to call in sick Monday. Alice nursed her and cuddled her and fixed all her meals and she wanted her to skip Tuesday as well but Bella didn't want to fall into any bad patterns. She turned up at work with her face pale and the side of her neck spatted with makeup to conceal the bite. She checked it every morning and by the end of the week it had healed enough to forego the makeup. She was surprised at how long it took to regain her strength. She didn't feel a hundred percent till the next weekend—when Alice needed to feed again.

She wanted to hold out longer but she felt it would be safer if they did it sooner. She was reluctant like last time and like last time she wanted to make it special, albeit rather less extravagant.

They spent the night at home and composed a small dinner party there in the kitchen, seated either side a pair of tallow candles and nicely dressed with Bella in a shirt and slacks and Alice in a sundress. All they had bought was a bottle of wine and groceries for dinner. Alice was a fine cook despite her appetite for other things and she had made a special dish of lamb cutlets with fetta and prosciutto. It was delicious and afterwards they adjourned to the bathroom where the girl undressed her and ushered her into the shower and erotically bathed her with a loofamitt, caressing the soapy sponge across every inch of her body, slowly and luxuriously, like a dedicated handmaiden. Telling her to raise her arms and part her legs, placing kisses on the areas she washed. Bella obeying, smiling, a growing giddiness in her stomach and between her thighs.

They emerged into the bedroom purely naked, no makeup, no underwear. Alice turned down the lamp and turned back the covers. Bella climbed into the bed and Alice climbed in after her. Bella took her in her arms, her heart soaring at the softness descending on her. Alice began kissing her. Their bodies clean and naked, perfectly dry, rubbing against each other with a sinful softness. No sound but breathing in the dark and little low moans. The girl made love to her slowly and completely, taking an entire hour to guide her slowly into orgasm, teasing her breasts and nipples, sucking at them, lowering her mouth and kissing at the area there, licking at it, stopping, licking again and then stopping once more, lifting her face and kissing her mouth with lips slick with her own arousal, arching into her body with her tongue swirling in her mouth as she reached between her legs and played her vagina like a harp.

They made love over and over until finally Bella guided Alice's face to the nook of her neck, whispering for her to go ahead, do it, it's okay. Alice did very slowly, as if to savour the penetration, puncturing the skin like a fruit and moaning as the blood filled her mouth. Bella winced at the pain and held her close, whispering for her to keep going. She could feel the venom entering her system. Flowing into her body, all warm and lovely. The pain fading and replaced by the urge to hold the girl closer, tighter, never let her go. Smiling and stolen over with a strange sense of fulfilment as the girl suckled at her, gently, hungrily. Like a baby. Something sweet and innocent that must be loved and held and nurtured by the body itself. A sacred bond. She was tripping out with all these thoughts but even in the morning she felt more or less the same.

Two more weeks and they were well into winter. A week after that and it began snowing.

Alice lamented that the majority of her wardrobe was now useless but she perked up again when Bella took her shopping for winter things. They bought her a parka and a beanie with a pompom and a nice pair of fur-lined boots that were knee-high and super cute with the woollen skirts and leggings she liked to wear. Alice wanted to use her own money but Bella insisted. She never let her pay her back from the night in Seattle either.

The temperature dipped near zero in those days and Bella used it as an excuse to pick Alice up from work so she wouldn't have to walk home. Alice kept telling her that she didn't have to, that vampires didn't feel the cold, almost like a girl who was embarrassed when her mother picked her up from school.

The old house featured a fireplace in the living room and they had fires in the evenings as they cuddled and watched TV. The snow fell softly in the window and it fell all night and in the white morning Bella turned out to shovel the driveway. Alice wanted to help but there was only one shovel and she had to content herself with simply hovering at Bella's side with her mitts and miniskirt like a winter fairy, chatting, giggling, lobbing the occasional snowball. Bella was happy for the company but she was growing faint from the shovelling. Alice had fed from her twice in the last week and Bella had already began exaggerating how well she felt in the mornings. But she knew Alice would have to feed from her again—and soon—so she pushed on and ignored the wooziness, not wanting Alice to worry.

Christmas was only weeks away and it was the first time Bella had been excited for Christmas in years. It was the first time she wouldn't be alone. Alice was excited as well. Together they assembled a plastic tree in the living room and spent the morning decorating it with a set of shiny gold baubles and a string of twinkle lights. It was a tall tree and Bella had to heft Alice in her arms for Alice to fix the star at the top. Then they turned on the lights and held hands as they admired it.

In the afternoon they did the exterior of the house, the way her father used to do it. The road and sidewalks were dusted with snow and several other houses down the street were already lit up a month in advance. They began by lugging out boxes of old decorations from the garage and hauling forth a tangled mass of twinkle lights that almost proved impossible to unravel. They hung a wreath from the front door and hung the porch with holly and red velvet ribbons. There was a large elm tree in the yard and they coiled the trunk and branches with tinsel and twinkle lights.

The rest of the lights had to be stapled to the roof and Alice volunteered very eagerly. She said it sounded like fun and Bella was happy to oblige her. She set a tall steel ladder against the house and the girl climbed up as quick as a cat, quick enough for Bella to advise caution. She knew the girl was technically immortal but she kept an eye on her all the same as she began arranging a plastic sleigh on the snow covered lawn with a string of plastic reindeer which would light up along with the rest of the house. The girl worked quickly, humming to herself and practically prancing across the steep and slippery roof like a suicidal ballet dancer, bobbing to staple down the lights and moving on again. Icicles hung from the gutters and it was a long way down.

Bella was under the elm tree by now, arranging a small scene in the snow there, a plastic Mary and Joseph and a plastic baby in manger, together with three plastic wise men each in a different colour robe. Kneeling in the snow with an extension cord until the girl's antics grew so troubling she had to say something.

"Stop fooling around, Alice," she called up to her, rising and dusting her knees with her heavy duty gloves. "Be careful up there."

"Oh, phooey," the girl called down, hopping over a length of cord and spinning it around over her head before bobbing to staple it down, all in one smooth motion. She was almost at the edge of the roof. "I'm almost finished, hold on. Just one more and—uh oh."

She was slipping.

Bella panicked.

The girl stumbled a step and she looked like she was about to fall. But then she corrected herself with a giggle and rode her momentum into a clean leap off the edge of the roof, executing a flawless double backflip corkscrew in the cold air before landing on her boots like a gymnast in a puff of powder right in front of Bella.

"Alice!" Bella hissed, scared, impressed, excited, and glancing up and down the street to see if anyone saw.

Alice giggled. "You didn't really think I was gonna fall, did you?"

"Ha ha, very funny."

Alice giggled again, hands on her hips, looking back at her work on the roof. A plastic Santa was perched by the chimney with a sack over his shoulder and the sky was white and bright as far as you could see.

"Yeah," she said. "Almost as funny as a vampire using her special demonic powers to put up Christmas decorations. It's almost as pathetic as that movie where those vampires played baseball in a thunder storm. Funny thing is, I don't even believe in it."

"Believe in what?"

"Christmas. Christ."

As she spoke she looked down at the diorama under the elm tree, the plastic baby in its plastic manger, the eyes dull with age, the lips chipped, his plastic parents watching over him in faded robes, a little lamb in the snow at the foot of the manger.

Bella was looking at it too. She had believed in god and heaven after her mother died. Then she got older and her father died too and it was more of a hope than a belief. By the time she would die herself she didn't know what she would believe. She turned back to Alice.

"Is it because you're a vampire?" she asked.

Alice shook her head casually, clapping her mitts together to get rid of the snow. "Nah," she said. "It's more of a personal thing. I mean, there's obviously some force out there in the universe that hates me. I figure it's gotta be god, right?"

Bella smiled at her reasoning and put her arms loosely around Alice's body. Alice looked up at her, her eyes big and black under her thick woollen beanie, and Bella smiled at her.

"Nobody hates Alice," she said.

Alice smiled at that, even if she didn't seem to believe it, and for a moment they stood there in each other's arms, gazing at each other intimately, right in the middle of the front lawn. Alice glanced down the street and back at Bella with a covert whisper.

"The neighbours might see," she said.

Bella didn't let go. She only smiled and leaned and placed a kiss directly on the girl's lips. They were soft and cold and she held the kiss for a long moment before releasing it.

"I don't care if anyone sees," she said. "You're part of my life now. I love you."

It was the first time either of them had ever said it. Alice's eyes went round and large, as if she'd been waiting to hear it for a while. The nylon of their jackets whispered between them and a soft giggle came out of her like a little overflow of happiness.

"I love you too," she said.

Bella smiled and cupped the girl's cheek. Her face seemed so tiny and pretty under the huge glove on her hand. She gave her another kiss, a soft peck on her lips, and smiled at her again.

"Would you like to feed from me tonight?"

"We'd better not. You're so pale."

"You need to stop being so afraid. You know I trust you."

"I know, but…let's just not, okay?"

Bella nodded softly. The girl had always struggled under a strange conflict concerning feeding, half of her living for it, half of her loathing it. Bella's own feelings were simpler. She had even begun to enjoy the connection. She was disappointed but she decided not to push it.

"Okay," she said. "Just let me know when you're ready."

Then she gave her another kiss before they got back to work.

It was a long day and in the evening they relaxed together in the tub. Bella expected she might change her mind that very night but she didn't. Nor the next night or the night after.

A full week passed and the girl had yet to feed from her. Bella became worried. She had lost count of how many days it had been. Two weeks at least. Usually she did it once a week. Bella offered her neck every night after they made love but Alice would demure. She said she didn't need to. Bella would pretend to understand but she was beginning to realize that maybe it was Bella herself that needed it. Needed the intimacy and the closeness, needed that mingled rush of pain and pleasure as the girl's fangs pierced her skin and pumped her with venom.

The following Saturday she left the station and went to pick Alice up from work. Alice had told her in the morning that she wanted to walk but Bella wanted to surprise her. It was snowing again and Bella brushed at the shoulders of her jacket as she entered the diner.

She swept the place for Alice but there was no Alice. She took a stool at the counter and one of the waitresses noticed her and came over with the coffee pot. Her blonde hair was messy, as if she'd been in a rush to get ready this morning, and she looked pale and tired with no makeup.

"Alice is in the back, she'll be done in a minute," she said, without saying hello. "Want some coffee?"

Bella was staring at her neck.

There were two small puncture marks in it.

"Yo," said the waitress. "Coffee?"

Bella tore her eyes away. It felt like her heart had plopped into her stomach. The waitress was waiting by for an answer obnoxiously and Bella nodded.

"Thanks," she said. "What happen to your neck?"

The waitress poured the cup, sloshing a little in the saucer carelessly, and shrugged. "I don't know, some kind of bug bite. I thought it was mosquitoes, but it doesn't itch."

She scratched it anyway and sighed. Bella was struggling to act normal. Her breathing was heavy and shallow. She didn't know what she was feeling but it hurt.

"Hey," the waitress said, "can I ask you a question?"

"What?"

"Is it true that you and Alice are…?"

She trailed off, her face caught somewhere between scepticism and disgust. There were rumours all over town about them by now. Bella didn't know how to answer the question but she nodded.

"Wow," the waitress said, although her expression was anything but impressed. "Is that even legal?"

"She's over eighteen."

"No, I meant two chicks."

The question was so stupid it made Bella look up. Then she stood up and walked out the diner, leaving her coffee on the counter unpaid.

She drove home and the girl arrived home shortly after, smiling and rosycheeked after her stroll in the snow, her shoulders and hair dusted with pale lace flakes. Bella pretended to be fine. She hadn't been able to figure anything out yet and she didn't want to act rashly. Maybe it had been mosquitoes after all. Mosquitoes in the middle of winter. Mosquitoes that don't itch and drink enough blood to make you visibly pale and drained.

They went to bed together that night and Bella made love to her very thoroughly, as if she might find answers in her body, applying her lips to her wet vagina and kissing it as if it were a mouth, pushing her tongue inside her as deeply as it would go, kissing her, eating her, needing her. Alice came with quite a loud cry and afterwards Bella wrapped her in her arms and guided her face into her neck.

"Do it, baby," she whispered. "Go ahead."

But the girl only shook her head and laid against Bella's shoulder. "It's okay," she said. "I don't need to tonight."

Bella felt a big salt cinder rise in her throat. But when she spoke her voice came out normal.

"It's been more than two weeks," she said.

Alice was moaning and getting comfortable against Bella's body, her silken warmth coiling about her in the dark under the covers. Bella's arms went around her naturally and Alice gave a happy sigh.

"I know," she said. "But I'm okay. Just hold me. That's all I really need."

Bella held her and swallowed away the lump.

Anxiety gnawed at her all night and it took her a long time to fall asleep. She couldn't think clearly. She didn't understand what was happening. Alice had fed from someone else. Why? Was she getting sick of her? Was she falling for the waitress? No, that was impossible. The waitress wasn't gay and she had no idea what had bitten her. She was also ugly and stupid. There was no way Alice could want her more than she wanted Bella.

So why then did she feel so betrayed?

Two nights later Bella woke in the middle of the night. It was pitch black in the room but she could hear something. A soft rustle of clothes, like someone quietly getting dressed. A creak of the closet. Bella pretend to be asleep. Her heart had rose into her throat because she knew what was happening. Alice was sneaking out.

She listened until the sounds went away and then she got out of bed and moved to the bedroom door. She looked out into the corridor. Darkness. Nothing. She heard something downstairs and thought it was the front door. She hurried into the living room and moved the curtains slightly to peek out the corner of the window. The streets were empty aside from one lone figure on the sidewalk, a girl in a hoody with the hoody up, passing through the lamplight in a light sift of snow with her head down and her hands in her pockets.

Bella let the curtain fall and stood there for a minute, not knowing what to do. Then she sprinted for the front door and out of the house.

She ran all the way to the corner and looked about wildly for the hooded figure. She caught a glimpse of her turning at the end of the block and followed at a safe distance, already shivering. She was wearing nothing but her sleepwear, tanktop and trackpants, and the snow was falling on her bare shoulders. By the end of the street her teeth where chattering as she stumbled along, rubbing her arms. Only one car passed. She followed the girl for five blocks until her feet were numb in her socks. Then she lost her.

Bella stood under a streetlamp, shivering and looking about. A row of old houses were ranged on the other side of the street, each of them dark and silent. Did one of them belong to the waitress?

Bella continued to the end of the street, looking for any sign, her jaw in a seizure of cold. There was a veterinary clinic on the corner, a squat white building closed off with a chain-link fence and gateless arch. The roof was dusted with fresh snow and she was about to turn and trudge home when she noticed tracks in the snow—on the roof. She blinked and looked again, holding the cold wire fence with one hand and peering through the mesh on her toes. The tracks were hard to see but they were there, little bootprints that led from the edge of the roof to an airduct.

Bella let go of the fence and started rubbing her arms again, her breath misting from her mouth. She looked down the street the way she came. She sniffed and swiped her leaking nose with a wrist. She didn't know how long she could afford to stay out here. She was freezing.

She turned back to the clinic and she didn't have to wait any longer. The hooded figure was climbing out of the airduct like some kind of creature, clad in black and moving on her hands and knees to keep low. She crawled to the edge of the roof and then she noticed the woman down there on the sidewalk. She flipped back the hood and squatted there for a second, silhouetted against the dark sky like a roosting raven. It was Alice. Bella entered through the gate, hugging herself, her face a mask of anger and grief, and stood in the snow covered yard while Alice jumped down and landed in a squat, silently like a ninja.

Bella watched her rise to her feet and she didn't even know why she was so angry. She had just witnessed breaking and entering and possible theft but that wasn't it.

"What were you doing in there? Did you steal something?"

Alice seemed sad but not really distressed that she'd been caught. "I can explain," she said, and held up her hands in a calming gesture.

One of her hands was holding a glass vial she seemed to have stolen. Bella snatched it away from her and looked at the label. The tiny glass jar was filled with a clear liquid.

"What the fuck is this shit?" she demanded, her breath pluming angrily in the freezing air.

The girl hesitated a moment but she didn't even seem to consider lying. "Metorphin hydrochloride," she said. "It's an animal tranquilizer."

"A tranquillizer."

"Yeah."

"What the fuck do you need a tranquillizer for?"

She didn't answer. She looked aside as if she was ashamed. Bella sobbed, both from the cold and from these unknown insecurities clawing at her heart. She was shaking violently and her voice came out in a shudder.

"It's that waitress, isn't it? God fucking dammit. I trusted you, Alice. You've been feeding from her, haven't you?"

"Just once."

"Once?! Then what the fuck is _this_!?"

She smashed the vial of tranquilizer on the footpath. The girl flinched. The sound of the shattering glass sounded unnaturally loud in that quiet little courtyard.

"You were going to do it again, weren't you?"

Alice nodded reluctantly. "Yes."

Bella sniffed and stepped backward in her socks, away from the shards of glass and away from the girl. She was shaking her head and on the verge of tears.

"I told you, Alice," she said. "I told you I don't want you feeding from anyone but me. What if you killed her? Did you even think about that? What then? What if you killed her?"

The girl didn't look up. Her voice came out softer than the sifting flakes of snow falling in her hair.

"At least it wouldn't be you," she whispered.

Bella froze. The breath flowed out of her as if she'd been hit in the stomach. Tears sprang into her eyes. Suddenly she understood what her anxieties hadn't let her earlier and yet the anxieties didn't go away. She sniffed and wiped her face with numb fingers.

"Did you sleep with her?" she asked.

"No."

"Are you telling me the truth?"

"Of course," Alice said. "I love you."

Bella sniffed again. Her eyes filled with tears and suddenly she started crying into her hands, shaking and shuddering and sobbing in the snow. Alice approached a step, her boots crunching in the broken glass.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice strained and full of regret. "I only did it because I can't stand the thought of losing you. I need you. I need you more than I need to feed from you. Please, you have to understand. You saw how weak you were getting. How could I bare it if I hurt you?"

Bella forced herself to stop crying. Her face was wet and crumpled. Alice watched her for a moment and then she came forward and wrapped an arm around her bare and shuddering shoulders. Her touch was indescribably warm on her frozen skin.

"Come on," she whispered. "Let's go home. We can't talk here. You're freezing."

Bella sniffed once more and allowed Alice to lead her out into the sidewalk.

They didn't speak until they got home. Alice held her shoulders and rubbed her arms the whole way and then she took her into the living room and sat her on the sofa. She went and fetched her a robe and a blanket and she made her a hot cup of chocolate. Finally she stacked some logs in the fireplace and lit the newspaper underneath, adding a little fuel to get it burning quicker. Flames licked up and down the dark logs and she reached into the fire with her bare hand to arrange them better.

Bella watched her from the sofa, still shivering. She had wrapped herself in the blanket and she was holding the steaming mug in both hands. Her feet had thawed and started to burn and she sat crossed legged for the extra warmth. Alice got the fire going and now she was staring into it. Bella frowned at the back of her head and said:

"I don't want you going near her again."

Alice rose and turned around and shook her head softly. "I won't."

"From now on, you feed only from me," Bella went on. "Do you understand? I don't want you stealing things and drugging people and assaulting them while they're unconscious. I don't care what you've done in the past, but I care now. I can't let you break the law and endanger people's lives. I just can't."

"What about your life?"

"I'll be fine. I trust you."

Her voice came out firm and almost rough. The room was lit only in the orange glow of the fireplace and the only sound was the crackle of the fire. The girl came over to the sofa and sat down beside her and took a little bit of blanket for her own lap, simply for the sake of sharing. She didn't seem to know what to say and finally she shook her head.

"It's not a matter of trust," she said softly. "Haven't I made it clear by now? If we keep doing what we're doing, you will die. Even if I never slip and even if I ration myself as tightly as possible. It's inevitable. Your body simply can't produce enough blood to sustain both of us. The longer you stay with me, the weaker you'll get. Until one night you'll close your eyes and never open them again. Look at you. It's already taken a toll."

The girl had cupped her cheek and she was gazing into her eyes with concern, the firelight playing over her pretty face. Bella returned her gaze with almost a glare.

"I'm fine," she said.

"You won't be for much longer."

"I said I'm fine, Alice. Just promise me you'll never touch that girl again. Okay?"

Alice didn't answer. Her hand fell away from her cheek and she looked aside toward the fire. Bella took her face and turned it back to her own.

"Promise me," she said. "I understand why you did it and why you felt you had to, but I can't allow it. It's dangerous. It's against the law…and…and…"

She trailed off, shaking her head. Because these weren't her real feelings and suddenly she couldn't fight against them anymore. Her mask of authority collapsed and she went on with tears in her eyes and her voice thick with emotion.

"And I'm really fucking jealous," she said. "I'm serious, Alice, don't ever do this again. You have no idea how much it hurt me. I can forgive you this time, but never again. I'm your girlfriend. I'm the one who takes care of your needs. Do you understand?"

Alice looked into her eyes. The fire crackled across the room and slowly, reluctantly, she nodded. Bella blinked and swallowed the lump in her throat.

"Promise me."

"I promise."

"Good," Bella said, and wrapped her into a hug, letting the blanket fall in her lap. "The most important thing is trust. I have to be able to trust you."

"You can."

"I know," Bella said, holding her, squeezing her. "I know you only mean well. And stop worrying about the future, okay? You're not going to hurt me, I know you won't. You're not as bad as you think. You're even more harmless than those fairytale vampires in movies. Nothing bad is going to happen. We'll probably end up together forever, just like a novel. Wouldn't that be great?"

"Yeah," the girl whispered, so softly it might've been Bella's imagination.

Bella released the hug and smiled at her, cupping her face and gazing into it. Suddenly her love was too much to contain and she kissed her, once twice, and a third time, pressing their lips together firmly and parting them, letting her tongue into her mouth and wrapping her arms around her neck.

Alice eased backwards on the sofa and Bella climbed on top of her, kissing her, making her moan.

"God, I love you," Bella panted. "I love you so much."

They made love on the sofa like teenagers, under the heavy wool blanket with heavy moans, without even taking off their clothes. Bella had never been this assertive before and Alice had never been this passive before. The girl had her mouth wide open to allow Bella access and Bella put her whole tongue inside of it, exploring every inch of it and only wanting more, needing it, desperate for it, kissing her and rubbing her breasts into the girl beneath her aggressively like some kind of animal, the need growing and growing between her legs.

Until finally she couldn't control herself, breaking the kiss and rising up on the couch, tangled in the blanket, her dark hair like a storm about her head and shoulders. Alice looked up in the firelight, panting, and lay there as Bella fumbled with her legs. She was wearing jeans and Bella didn't even take them off. She simply wrenched them open and began scissoring between them, groaning with relief at the first friction, her face flushed and glazed with lust in the orange light of the fire. The material of her trackpants was thin and soft and she grinded herself into the girl's jeanclad crotch until she came in her panties, crying out and sucking in a breath as an unexpectedly intense climax shuddered through her body.

She didn't even wait to catch her breath. She forced away her own pleasure as quick as it came and fumbled with the front of the girl's jeans to get them open, aggressive with a new need. She tugged them down a bit and ducked her head underneath, inhaling the heady scent of her arousal. The girl was wet and whimpering and her whole body squirmed as the woman shoved her tongue directly into her vagina, forcing her into orgasm almost instantly.

Bella's stomach was rolling with hunger and even after Alice came she spent a few moments lapping up the remainder of her arousal. She licked every last drop and placed a few kisses there. Alice was breathing heavily and after a while she rolled into the sofa an curled up. She hadn't pulled up her jeans and her round little butt was smooth and pale orange in the firelight. Bella caressed it for a moment and placed a kiss on it and then she started gathering the girl into her lap.

"Come here," she whispered. "Come here."

Alice sat up limply. She was sitting on Bella's lap with her jeans and panties rumpled around her thighs and Bella's arms around her. Bella flung her hair away from her neck with a toss of her head and guided Alice's mouth toward the spot she liked to bite.

"Go ahead," she said. "Do it, it's okay."

She felt the girl opening her mouth. She felt the familiar graze of her fangs.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and then she bit her.

Bella's head flew back from the pain, an orgasmic gasp escaping her. Alice's fangs went deeper, a low moan coming from her mouth like a growl, and Bella felt that rush of love and intimacy that she'd been craving for over two weeks. She was smiling and tilting her head back to allow the girl as much access as she needed. Alice's hand was on her shoulder but Bella took it from there and put it on her breast instead, somehow feeling it was better there. Then she moved it underneath her tanktop and held it against her bare tit, caressing it, smiling at how nice it felt. Alice moaned and kept feeding.

—


	6. Chapter 6

—

Chapter 6:

—

Christmas night was five nights later. Alice had quit her job at the diner over the phone and Bella kept the girl much to herself, hurrying home from work every night knowing she'd be waiting. Alice greeting her at the door with a kiss, asking how her day went. A dustrag in one hand, a scent of furniture polish about her. Before making dinner and making love, perhaps sinking her teeth into her neck afterwards. A domesticated demon.

One of the guys at the station had invited her to a holiday party but the invitation didn't seem to include her young lesbian girlfriend and she didn't ask to clarify.

They did their Christmas shopping separately, Bella at the market, Alice online, and on Christmas night they sat on the carpet before the brightly lit tree and took turns unwrapping things, a plate of homemade cookies on the coffeetable and a glass of eggnog as well. The cat had found a length of ribbon and it played with it furiously to the exclusion of all else.

Alice delighted at everything she received, clothes, shoes, a small ceramic statue of a pixie that was dusted with glitter. Tearing open the paper with a childlike eagerness that Bella suspected was partly feigned for her own enjoyment but made Bella smile nonetheless. Her main present was a new phone that Alice hadn't been able to afford and even though it's only purpose would be to text Bella at work she overflowed with happiness regardless.

Bella's own gifts were slightly less imaginative but rather more…intimate. The first thing she opened was a slim box in shiny red paper and inside the box was a scarlet coloured thong. Bella laughed and lifted it out, already promising to wear it tonight. Alice giggled as she sorted among the gifts for another to give to Bella, clad in a Santa hat like an impish elf. Bella opened it and revealed a matching scarlet coloured bra. The next several gifts were also underwear, a teeny black g-string with a pink bow on it, a matching set of leopard lace bra and briefs, a white silk stretch-mesh babydoll that looked almost like a tiny see-through cocktail dress. White stockings to match and other stockings as well, fishnets, black pinstripe, embroidered lace. Bella continued to open the presents in increasing amusement and delight until she had a whole collection of exotic lingerie piled beside her, enough to last a lifetime.

She was down to the final box and she was already grinning and shaking her head at what she might find inside. She undid the ribbon and carefully unwrapped it without ripping the paper. Alice watched her eagerly. Bella lifted the lid of the box and brushed aside the scented tissue paper. It was a corset. Red satin with black embroidering about the bust. Bella laughed and lifted it out, blushing even brighter than the gaudy garment in her hands.

"Wow," she said. "More lingerie."

Alice giggled. "Are you disappointed?"

Bella turned the corset in her hands. It laced up the back and the black laces were dangling. She grinned and shook her head.

"Well," she said. "It's better than socks, I guess."

She was about to add it to the pile when the girl took it from her and admired it herself.

"Come on, look how cute it is," she said, holding it against her torso. "You're gonna look amazing."

Bella smiled at her and then she leaned across the space between them and placed a tender kiss on her mouth.

"Thanks," she said. "Seriously. This is the best Christmas ever."

"Really?"

"Definitely."

Bella gave her another kiss and then she took the corset and rose to her feet among the empty boxes and litter of wrapping paper, holding the article against her body. Alice sat there, watching her in the firelight, and Bella gave her an impish grin.

"Now why don't I put some of these things on so you can unwrap your final present, hm?"

Alice giggled and hopped to her feet.

It took them two trips to haul the underwear into the bedroom and another ten minutes to decide what Alice should wear. In the end, Bella took the corset and the pair of pinstripe stockings into the bathroom and left Alice to surprise her.

It was difficult to wriggle into the tight shiny red corset and even more difficult to lace it up by herself. Somehow she managed and then she sat on the rim of the tub and pulled on her stockings, straightening her legs in the air before her and adjusting the tops until the stripes were perfectly straight. She was already getting horny and she practically bounced to her feet to check herself in the mirror, admiring the plump pushup of her tits and making some slight adjustments to the black satin décolletage there. She brushed her hair quickly and gave herself a quick spray of perfume and did her makeup as well, a few flicks of mascara, some lipstick. Finally she stuck the Santa hat on her head and hiked up her boobs and went out into the bedroom.

Alice had already dressed and turned down the lamp. She was posed and on the bed, laying on her side to display the rolling hill of her hip, and she was wearing nothing but the scarlet lace thong. Her legs were bare and endless and her toenails painted red. She wore red lipstick and her lips were curved in a wicked smile.

"Hey, baby," she said. "You got a present for me?"

Bella's hat had flopped down slightly and she tilted it back with a grin as she climbed into the bed.

They made love playfully for almost an hour, smiling and slightly rough, vying for dominance as they held each other down and kissed each other only to be flipped over and kissed back. Alice took the time to enjoy Bella's outfit, admiring it at close range with her hands perched at Bella's satinclad waist as she placed kisses into Bella's cleavage. She stroked the corset all over with her hands and finally she turned Bella around and Bella gathered the dark locks of her hair over her shoulder. Alice unlaced her slowly, savoringly. The corset came loose. Alice tugged down the bust and took two handfuls of her breasts, kneading them, squeezing them.

Finally she laid Bella down and pulled the corset off, leaving Bella clad in nothing but her stockings. Her legs fell open right away. Her pussy was wet and throbbing madly. Alice inserted two fingers inside her and triggered a low moan and a squirm of her hips. Bella squeezed on her fingers and told her to keep going but Alice paused suddenly to go and fetch some shoes, black pumps that she slipped onto Bella's stockinged feet. She kissed the shoes and kissed the ankles above them. She trailed kisses along the stripes of the stockings. She kissed the insides of her thighs, the warm flesh above the tops of the stockings. She placed a lick across Bella's pussy, a quick flick of her tongue, and then she giggled and moved her mouth to Bella's breasts, massaging them and sucking on her nipples. Finally she moved back down between her legs and made her come, almost instantly, lapping at her soft and sopping pussy until her back arched and she cried out.

It was a wonderful orgasm and she was eager to return it. Alice wanted to let her catch her breath but Bella flipped her over with a grin. Alice's panties and most of her upper thighs were completely drenched. Bella peeled away that tiny scrap of red lace and lowered her mouth to the wetness there, licking her leisurely like a delicious dessert.

Afterwards they went into the kitchen and Alice reheated a bit of the Christmas pudding for Bella. It was almost four in the morning and snow was swirling in the window like a Christmas globe. Bella had left her stockings on and put on a sweater and a nightrobe. Alice had only thrown on a white t-shirt and Bella kept alert to catch glimpses of her naked butt as she swished about the kitchen. She was heating the pudding in the oven and making coffee and when the pudding was done she covered it with custard and set it on the table. She gave Bella a spoon and Bella took a bite right away, the spoon ladled with dripping custard.

"Mmm," she said. "Remember when I said this was the best Christmas ever?"

"Yeah."

"I spoke too soon. _Now_, it's the best Christmas ever."

Alice giggled and poured the coffee. She placed the mug beside the steaming bowl of pudding and then she petted Bella's hair and placed a kiss on it.

"Well," she said. "I'm just glad to be a part of it."

She went and sat down, shuffling the chair a little closer. Bella took another mouthful of pudding, smiling around the spoon. She felt positively radiant.

"Is it fun for you too?" she asked.

Alice giggled. "Are you kidding? It's perfect."

"What did you do last year?"

"Last year I was…in Seattle."

"Did you have a girlfriend at the time?"

Alice nodded, her smile dimming slightly. Bella nodded as well. She considered letting it go but she was interested in Alice's life and she wanted Alice to know she trusted her.

"Was that the one you told me about?" she asked. "The one that left you?"

"No. It was before that."

"Who was she?"

"Just a girl. I met her at the mall."

"She was younger than me?"

"Mmhm."

"Prettier?"

Bella had let a little playful jealousy into her voice and Alice gave her a chiding look. Bella giggled and waved her spoon to apologize.

"Sorry," she said. "Just curious."

Alice shook her head as if it was no big deal. "It's alright," she said. "Actually, she wasn't very attractive at all. But she was sweet. And she lit up whenever I was around her. I liked that. She was very lonely before she met me."

"Did she know what you were?"

"Yeah."

"How'd she deal with it?"

"She thought it was cool."

"That's sweet."

"Yeah. Kind of sad too."

Bella didn't know what she meant by that. Alice was tracing a fingertip on the tabletop and staring at it vacantly, a recollection of sadness in her eyes, a slump of sorrow in her slender shoulders. Bella poked at her pudding absently and took another bite.

"How long were you together?" she asked.

Alice sighed and looked up. She thought about it but she didn't seem able to recall. "Not sure," she said. "It was a few months. Three, maybe."

"How come she left you if she was cool with you being a vampire?"

"She didn't."

"So it was you who left?"

"Basically."

"Well, what happened?"

"She died."

Bella had the spoon in her mouth. A chill went through her and she took the spoon out and swallowed. The winter wind had been increasing all night and a low moan went through the attic upstairs.

"Oh," she said.

Alice watched her for a moment and then she lowered her eyes sadly. "We shouldn't talk about this tonight," she said. "Tonight we should be happy."

"How did it happen?"

Alice didn't answer.

"Was it an accident?"

"No."

"What do you mean?"

"It wasn't an accident. We talked about it. She wanted me to. She was already very depressed before she met me. Bullied at school, hated by her family. I told her she'd be happy one day as long as she kept living, but she wouldn't listen. I was the only thing in her life that was nice to her. And I was the thing that killed her."

Bella was sitting as rigid as a statue. She was holding the spoon and then she stuck the spoon in the bowl and pushed the bowl away. Alice was gazing at the tabletop. Her voice was soft and distant.

"She died in a motel room," she said. "She had run away from home to be with me."

Bella looked away.

"She was fifteen years old," Alice went on. "Still just a girl."

"That's enough."

"I'm sorry."

"Why did you do it?"

"She wanted me to."

"That's not good enough. She was just a kid. A depressed homosexual teenager. How could she possibly make a decision like that? How could _you_?"

Alice didn't answer. Bella shook her head and blinked back tears. She was looking at the window. Snow was reeling in the darkness outside and the glass was seized in a glaze of frost like an icy web. Alice watched her sadly.

"I'm sorry," she said again.

"You shouldn't have done it."

"What else was I supposed to do?"

"If you weren't willing to turn her or whatever, you should've left her."

"It's not as simple as that."

"Did you love her?"

"No. Not the way I love you."

Bella's lip trembled. Somehow that seemed saddest of all. She looked at Alice. Alice was sitting there with her hands in her lap, not guilty, not innocent. Just Alice. Bella sniffed and wiped her eyes with her fingers.

"I'm sorry," she said.

"About what?"

"That it happened. That you had to go through that."

"It wasn't me who was the victim."

"You weren't the only victim. But you were one of them."

Alice smiled softly at that. A gust of wind rattled an upstairs window. Bella sat there for a moment and then she shook her head again. She looked at the girl and said:

"That's not going to happen to me, you know."

Alice looked at her. Bella went on firmly.

"I'm not going to die and I'm not going to leave you," she said. "In fact, we need to talk about this."

"About what?"

"About our future and how we're going to be together. We need to start making commitments. How exactly do vampire's turn people, anyway? Is it the venom, or…?"

Alice looked down. When she looked up she was looking at the swirling darkness in the window. She gazed at it for a moment, smiling sadly, and then she turned her sad smile to Bella.

"Let's not talk about this right now," she said. "It's Christmas. Let's just be happy, okay?"

Bella hesitated and then nodded tersely. Her stomach was turning with unanswered questions but the girl was right. Tonight they should only be happy. Alice smiled and rose to her feet. She did a pirouette to lighten the mood, the skirt of her t-shirt flaring around her naked hips, and offered a hand to Bella.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go back to bed."

Bella placed her hand in Alice's and much of her anxiety was dispelled at the touch.

They went back to bed and snuggled and made love until gray cracks of dawn appeared in the curtains. Bella slept with Alice in her arms and she woke only hours later, stumbling into the shower and her police uniform. Alice had cleaned everything up, all the dishes, all the wrapping paper. Bella kissed her in the kitchen and Alice made her coffee and tried to convince her to stay home. Bella explained that she was one of the few officers who didn't have family obligations and she was already signed up to work the holidays before she met Alice. Alice wasn't happy about it but Bella gave her another kiss and reminded her what her new phone was for.

She was only five minutes out of the house when the first text came in.

_miss u already_

Bella smiled but she didn't want to reply while she was driving. She didn't have much experience with texts and wasn't a fast typer. She was going to reply at the station but two minutes later there was another one.

_do u miss me too?_

Bella chuckled and shook her head, looking for a space to pull over. It had stopped snowing sometime last night but several of the cars along the sidewalk were dusted white like strange pastries. She found a spot by the used clothes store and by the time she'd parked there was another text.

_r u ignoring me? _

Bella giggled and sent a few rapid fire.

_driving_

_miss you too_

_love you_

_talk soon_

Then she sighed and reached for the car key. The engine rumbled to life at the exact same moment the phone started buzzing on the seat beside her.

_i still miss u_

Bella shook her head and pulled out into the road. She hadn't reached the end of the block when there was one last text.

_love u too btw_

Bella arrived at the station with a glow in her tummy and greeted everyone with a hearty Merry Christmas. The front desk was decorated with wreaths and tinsel and there was a decorated tree in the corner. The chief was there and he gave her a small gift. Bella had gotten him a gift as well and she fetched it from her locker and handed it to him on his way out. One of the guys behind the desk pointed out they were standing underneath the mistletoe. Bella burst out laughing and ducked away playfully.

The texts picked up again in the afternoon and they chatted idly about a few things until they began chatting about what Alice was wearing. She made Bella guess but Bella couldn't guess and finally Alice sent her a selfie she took of what she was wearing—which was almost nothing. Heels and a thong, posed cheekily in the mirror with her ass all round and sexy. Bella felt a blush slowly smother her face and she excused herself from duty to use the bathroom.

Alice made a roast turkey that night and she had bought a pound of ground turkey breast for the cat. They put some carols on in the background and ate by candlelight in the kitchen. The bird was enormous. Bella ate a large portion with carrots and potatoes and thick gravy. Alice wore jeans and a green sweater with a snowman on it. Bella's sweater was red with a tree on it. She ate as much as she could but she barely put a dent in the bird. Alice put it in the fridge and said she could have some for lunch tomorrow.

Bella thought she would be too full to make love that night but by the time they actually got into bed she found she couldn't resist. She asked if Alice wanted to feed from her but Alice didn't want to do it on Christmas.

She did it the next night. She selected an outfit from Bella's new collection of lingerie and Bella put it on before spreading herself on the bed in the candlelight. It had been a while since Alice had fed and Alice descended on her with a hunger Bella could feel in her lips, in the firmness of her kiss. Alice bought her to orgasm and then bit into her neck while she lay there spent and sweating. Bella gasped as she always did and wrapped her legs around her.

She woke the next morning drained and exhausted, so pale the chief at the station asked if she was alright. She reassured him she was fine and hurried to take her place at the front desk. She had texts to respond to.

A few nights later it was New Year's Eve. Once again Bella was invited to a party—this time with the option of bringing Alice—but she still hadn't fully recovered from the bite. She was looking forward to a quiet and romantic night, just the two of them.

They made it somewhat special yet somewhat low key. It had stopped snowing and they awaited midnight on the back porch, sitting at the lawntable and sipping champagne. There were no stars and no moon. There was going to be fireworks at midnight but she wasn't sure if they'd be able to see them. They had put a radio on to listen for the announcement and after a while Alice asked if Bella wanted to dance. Bella was tired and exhausted after a long day but she smiled and took Alice's hand.

They slow danced to random music on the radio and mostly they just enjoyed the closeness. Shuffling on the spot slowly in their boots and heavy winterware, smiling at each other. They had decorated the veranda with some streamers and balloons. Bella smiled at it all and chuckled softly to herself.

"My mom used to do a New Year's Eve party here," she said. "It would be like half the town invited. She was so different from me. Very friendly and outgoing. I don't even have any friends at the station."

"I like that you don't have any friends," Alice said cheekily. "That way I have you all to myself."

"You certainly do."

"Do you miss her? You're mother, I mean."

"Sometimes."

"I would've liked to meet your family. Do you think they'd like me?"

Bella chuckled softly, turning in Alice's arms. She didn't think either of her parent's would approve of even dating a girl, much less a blood thirsty vampire.

"They'd love you," she said. "What about you? Do you have any family?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, you know, a vampire family. What do they call it when vampires group up?"

"You mean, like a coven?"

"Yeah, like that. Have you ever had a coven?"

"No."

"How come?"

"I've never met any other vampires."

"Never?"

"Nope."

"Wow. I never of considered that. I thought…"

Bella trailed off as a wave of dizziness washed over her. She actually staggered on the spot. Alice fluttered in alarm and held her elbow.

"Are you okay?"

Bella nodded, fighting it away, not wanting Alice to worry. An old wallclock hung from one of the beams under the veranda. Bella tried to focus her eyes on it but she couldn't read it.

"What time is it?"

Alice looked at the clock and back at Bella, her brow puckered with concern. "Not quite midnight," she said. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"No, you're not."

"I'm fine, Alice."

"Come on, let's get you to bed."

"But it's not midnight yet."

"We'll have a drink in bed, okay? Come on."

Alice turned off the radio and swiped the champagne bottle and glass off the lawntable. She had opened the screendoor when the first of the fireworks exploded behind them with a dull popping sound.

Bella turned to look, swaying on the spot. In the blackness over the back fence a hot blaze of colour had spread across the sky, trailing tendrils of smoke and magnesium. Then there were a few more pops and several more rockets exploded, red and blue blooms incandescing and fading away again as if sucked into the darkness.

Bella turned to see what Alice thought but Alice only took Bella's arm and led her inside.

They didn't change clothes or light any candles. Alice set the champagne and the glass on the nightstand by the lamp and began taking off Bella's clothes. Bella got into the bed, naked, and watched Alice undress. Alice took everything off and climbed in after her. They made love very softly, almost idly, sharing a tender kiss and reaching between each other's legs as they gentled each other toward climax. They came with their lips connected and sharing the same breath.

Bella was breathing far harder than the exertion seemed to require and tried to slow it down. She was also sweating too much. The orgasm, as lovely as it was, had triggered a pretty bad headache. Alice was watching her and pouring her a glass of champagne, standing naked by the side of the bed.

"Sorry I didn't get to put on anything special," Bella said. "I didn't think I'd be so tired."

Alice didn't answer, she just handed Bella the glass. Her lips were pursed and her face set in sadness. Bella sipped and tried to laugh it away.

"Don't look at me like that," she said. "It's just a little wooziness. And don't even think about chickening out tonight. I'm not going to sit here and drink champagne by myself. You need to drink something too."

"Do you really want me too?"

"Yes," Bella said, an edge of need creeping into her voice. She had the idea that the venom would make her feel better. Just thinking about it eased her headache. "It's important to me, Alice," she said. "It's…"

Alice looked at her where she sat in the bed, pale, naked, her dark hair tangled about her head. Eyes lidded. Even her nipples were pale. A great sadness seemed to settle over her but she smiled.

"Okay," she said.

Relief flooded through Bella's body—almost sweeter than the venom would be.

"Good," she said. "Wait there, let me put something on."

"Bella, you don't have to—"

"Shh, shh, shh. What would you like me in?"

Bella had already struggled out of the bed and opened the dresser drawer.

Together they sifted through the collection until something caught Alice's eye. The white lace camisole with a white satin ribbon between the breasts. It was perfect. Bella put it on hastily and tugged up the white lace panties. She adorned the white lace gloves and pulled on the white lace stockings. Finally she climbed onto the bed and spread herself there, opening her legs wide and tilting back her head, allowing access anywhere on her body. Arrayed in white like a virgin sacrifice. The bedside clock read three minutes passed midnight but neither woman noticed.

Alice peeled aside the strip of white lace from Bella's pussy and fed on that place first, swiftly bringing her to yet another orgasm. Bella shivered and came, her body breaking out in perspiration. Alice crawled on top of her and began kissing her face, her lips, her closed eyes. Bella opened them and gave her a glazed smile. Alice petted her and kissed her. Then she rose and gathered her in her arms, all limp and boneless and radiating a fever heat. Bella wrapped her arms and legs around her, crossing her stockinged ankles, and let her head loll. Alice moved the hair from her neck and lowered her mouth to the flesh there.

Later they were laying in the dark. Bella felt like she was floating in a warm black sea, vacant, adrift. Alice was laying at her side and Bella was holding her.

"Alice?"

"Mm?"

"If you've never met any other vampires…how did you become one?"

Alice didn't answer. Her body felt so nice laying her against her like that. Bella inhaled her scent and tightened her arms, turning her face toward her slightly.

"Alice?"

"Go to sleep, baby," whispered Alice. "You need to sleep."

Bella sighed and slept.

The next day was New Year's Day. Her shift at work was in the afternoon and Alice let Bella sleep as late as possible. Bella could feel her hand jostling her before she was fully awake. Her eyelids cracked open. Alice was watching her, hoping she was okay.

Bella wasn't sure she could even get out of bed and she sent Alice into the kitchen for coffee before she even tried. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and rose shakily, already sweating and breathing heavy from the strain. She took a deep breath and made her way toward the bathroom.

In the bathroom she looked at herself in the mirror and slowly froze as her eyes focused on the reflection there. She was so pale her lips were white. She licked them and swallowed. Alice had cleaned her neck but blood had dripped on the white lace camisole she wore and there was a dark red stain over her breast, right where her heart would be. She looked at herself and at her face. It scared her how pale she was but she told herself she only needed some breakfast.

Yet when she finally appeared in the kitchen in her police uniform she wasn't hungry and didn't eat anything. Alice almost begged her to stay home but Bella refused to believe it was anything serious.

She drove to the station in a light snow, her vision blurring under the steady swish of the windshield wipers and the whiteness outside. She blinked slowly and frequently, each time feeling like her eyes might not open again after they close. Before she reached the stations she felt a wave of dizziness so strong she had to pull over. She parked on the sidewalk outside a hardware store and sat there with her eyes closed. She took deep breaths. She was sweating again. She could feel it under her arms and under her breasts. Her lips were dry. She swallowed and opened her eyes. Then she started the car and kept driving.

She made it to the station but not much further. She came through the glass doubledoors and the officer behind the desk did a doubletake at her face. She was taking off her jacket but she was having difficulty. She couldn't get her arms out. Finally she tugged it and got it loose and she went to hang it on the coatrack. But then an acute wooziness washed over her and she stumbled on the spot.

The officer behind the desk stood up. "You okay there, Swan?"

Bella didn't hear. The jacket fell out of her hand. She reached for the coatrack to steady herself and knocked it over with a clatter. She reeled and stumbled backwards and then she stood and swayed and passed out, pitching forward and her head landing with a sick thud on the hard tiled floor.

—


	7. Chapter 7

—

Chapter 7:

—

She woke in the hospital in the middle of the night and blinked a few times and faded away again. She thought she saw Alice by her bed—a sad figure watching her sadly—but when she woke again there was no Alice.

She was in a coma for two days. They said she had experienced some sort of heart failure caused by complications arising from blood loss. The doctor asked her how she had lost the blood but she had nothing to tell him. She was laying in a small bed with peagreen sheets. Her badge and gunbelt were on the nightstand beside a plastic vase of flowers with a note signed by some of the guys at the station. She looked for any evidence of Alice but there was not even a get well card. She asked the doctor if Alice had been to see her but the doctor didn't know who she was talking about. She asked the nurse as well when the nurse came to take the IV out of her arm but the nurse didn't know who Alice was either.

Bella already had a bad feeling. She was weak but she managed to get up and use the bathroom and when she came back she sat on the edge of the bed in her hospital gown and called Alice. Her stomach felt like a solid block of rock inside her. The call when to messagebank. Bella had no idea what to say and disconnected without saying anything. She called the house as well but no one picked up.

The only visitor she had was the chief. He came in the afternoon, wearing a frown and his police uniform. He closed the door and took off his hat.

"Well," he said gruffly. "How are you feeling?"

Bella didn't answer.

The chief's frown deepened. He was holding his broad brimmed hat at his chest, like a man at a funeral, and he exhaled through his nose.

"You wanna tell me what's been going on with you, Swan? The doctors tell me it was blood loss that triggered whatever happened to you. But they didn't find cuts or any other signs of self-harm. Only them holes in your neck. You wanna tell me why there's teeth marks around them holes?"

"I can't."

"Can't or won't?"

"Can't."

"Does it have something to do with that girl you took in? She have some kind of blood fetish? You been letting that girl do that to you?"

Bella looked away, an angry flush coming into her face. The chief glared at her and then went on, his voice rough and disapproving.

"She into drugs as well?"

"Drugs?"

"There was drugs in your system. Thought the doctors didn't notice? Methamphetamines. Guess you had a happy new year, didn't you?"

Bella's eyes burned and she kept them fixed on the chest of drawers in the corner. The chief shook his head and put his hat back on. Then he came over and took her badge and gunbelt from the bedside table. She didn't even glance at him.

"I'm sorry about this, Swan," he said, softening slightly, "but you know the rules. There won't be any charges, but you can't show up at work wasted and half dead and expect people to trust you with a badge and a gun."

He opened the door and turned back. Bella was still staring across the room from the hospital bed. Pale. Vacant. He took another breath and shook his head.

"Your daddy would be disappointed," he said.

Then he left.

Bella wanted to leave that afternoon but the doctor kept her overnight for observation. She kept waiting for Alice to come. Lying awake well into the night, waiting even beyond visiting hours. Waking later still and staying up until she drifted away again. Waiting for Alice to come but Alice did not come and did not come.

She was released in the morning and left to walk home, her police cruiser repossessed. She had been admitted with no clothes but her uniform and it would probably be the last time she ever wore it, wrapped up in her jacket and hurrying through the snow under a bleak and sunless sky. Shivering. Shuffling along the sidewalk without even a shadow to keep her company. A gloomy morning. The streets deserted. Gray slush in the gutters and small birds struggling through the gray and glazed atmosphere. They had given her a transfusion at the hospital and physically she felt almost fine. Emotionally she felt on the verge of some terrible hysteria. She was blinking back tears. Sniffing. Soon she started jogging.

When she reached the house she fumbled with the cold keys and got the door open. She walked in and closed it again, looking about for Alice.

"Alice?" she called.

No answer. No footsteps on the stairs.

Nothing.

Bella took a few steps into the livingroom and the cat came trotting down the stairs. It looked up at her and squalled loudly, hungrily, accusingly. Bella reached and picked it up, stroking it and apologizing softly, looking about the room. The stack of videogames on the coffeetable that Alice like to play had been packed up and put away. She shot a glance up the stairs, hoping with all her heart for Alice to come down but Alice did not. She wanted to call out again but she was afraid to.

She took the cat into the kitchen and fed it quickly, opening a tin with the cat sitting on the counter and staring intently at the proceedings, as if she would learn how to do it herself. Bella left the plate on the counter, washed her hands, and went upstairs.

She went down the corridor with a sinking heart. The bedroom door seem to recede before her. There was no reason to expect Alice to be in there but Bella did hope with all her heart. She opened the door. Her breathing had gone slow and deep. She was cold all over. There was no one in the room. The bed was made. The closet doors were open and there were clothes missing and on the nightstand there was a small stack of cash.

Bella swallowed the lump in her throat and approached the bed. There was a note on the pillow, a sheet of paper folded and sealed with red wax like a regency loveletter. Bella already knew what it was going to say and tears sprang to her eyes.

She took the note and sat on the edge of the bed. She unfolded it. The seal of red wax broke like her heart was breaking. The page was covered in a flowing script which was hard to read with the tears in her eyes.

_My dear Bella,_

_I would've preferred to say goodbye in person, but I'm not sure I would've had the strength to follow through. I hope I'm not being conceited when I say I know you would have wanted me to stay. But the danger of my love can no longer be ignored. I simply cannot bear the thought of hurting you. I thought I would rather hurt you than lose you, but I was wrong. I would rather lose you forever than harm you any further._

_I know you had dreams of one day becoming a creature like me so that we could be together for all time, but I'm afraid I must make a confession. There is no turning. My various appetites were afforded to me by no agency that can be replicated in another. Some people are born a certain way, some people die a certain way. I died many years ago and rose as the thing you found lost in the rain. There is no companionship for me. No love, no hope. Only death and despair and a never ending lust for the blood of my lovers._

_Now you can see how we were doomed from the beginning. I'm sorry. It was the only thing I was less than honest about. The truth, as truths are, is just too sad._

_I could not leave, however, without first letting you know how much you have meant to me. I love you. Your generosity and acceptance were more than anything I have ever known. I love you. I really cannot repeat that enough. Being with you has made me feel things I hadn't known I could feel. And although our time together was short, I will cherish it always. _

_I must conclude this note now because, honestly, I can't bear to elaborate on the magnitude of the loss and despair that has settled into my withered soul. I can only hope the damage I've done to your heart is somewhat mitigated by the happiness I contributed to it as well. Remember me not as the monster who fed on your flesh in the dark of night, but as that lonely little girl in the rain to whom you offered a home and happiness—if only for a moment._

_Farewell, my love. My precious, loveliest, dearest Bella. I will remember you forever._

_Yours eternally,_

_Alice._

Tears were dropping onto the paper, dark medallions of sorrow pooling among the sorrow already scribed there. Bella was struggling to control herself. Her whole face was trembling. Her eyes were wet. She tried reading the note again but her vision was swimming. A sob broke from her burning throat and finally she broke down and cried.

She didn't know how long she cried but she cried for a long time. She was there for over an hour, crying and wiping her eyes and rereading the note, hoping it wasn't true, praying it wasn't true. She didn't know what to do. Eventually she got up and checked the closet. The backpack was gone and most of her clothes. Only a few things remained. One of them was a top. She took it off the hanger and looked at it. It was pink with a rhinestone loveheart embroidered in the neckline. Bella held it in her hands and sniffed. It was so small, so light in her hand. She lifted it to her nose and inhaled a faint trace of Alice's scent. Then she started crying again.

It was still morning and she spent the rest of the day in the kitchen. She made a cup of coffee and sat down and then she just didn't rise again. She didn't drink the coffee either. Her eyes were bright red and glistening and she kept sniffing. She stood up only once to get a roll of paper towel and soon the tabletop was strewn with little wads of wet tissue.

It was late when she went to bed and later still when she actually slept. A few hours of fitful rest before waking in the slate gray morning. A brief flurry of hope in her heart before the blackness settled back in. She lay there for hours watching the gray gloom gather across the bedroom walls before getting up to use the bathroom. Then she went back to bed, taking her phone with her. She sat against the headboard with the covers over her lap and flipped through the small gallery of pictures she kept, already crying softly. She seemed to have forgotten how pretty Alice had been. Her eyes, round and beautiful like an elf, her lips. Her smile. Bella sniffed and wiped her eyes with the bedsheet. She used the phone to try and call but the call didn't go through.

That night she was starving enough to eat something. She descended into the kitchen with her nightrobe knotted about her waist, her stomach a gaping pit inside her. She put some bread in the toaster and stared bleakly out the kitchen window. Darkness. Snow in the yard. There was a dead elm tree out there and the dead boughs held beds of snow like the nests of ice birds. A swing made from an old truck tire hung from one of the branches. The tire had no snow on it and it was moving gently. As if stirred in the wind. As if a ghost had been sitting there and quickly fled against being seen. Bella stared at it, wondering, a sick sort of hope accumulating in her stomach. Then the toaster clicked and snapped her out of it. She put in two more pieces and went outside to check. But there was nothing. Only the cold and the darkness.

She was depressed for days. No one came to visit. No one called. In the evenings she would order takeout and remember Alice's cooking. Sitting alone at the kitchen table, eating fried rice from a box and trying not to cry. By the end of the week she had to go shopping.

It was the first time she'd left the house since coming home from the hospital. She had put her hair in a ponytail and threw on slacks and a shirt. She pushed a shopping cart along the aisles, unfocused, not really remembering what she needed. She was reaching for a twelve pack of toilet paper when someone said her name.

"Bella?"

It was a guy she knew from highschool. She didn't remember his name right away but she remembered he had once asked her to prom.

"Oh," she said flatly. "Hey."

He smiled and approached her with his shopping cart. Blonde, blue eyed. He looked almost the same as he did ten years ago. "Hi, wow, long time no see. How have you been?"

Bella shrugged noncommittally and waited to see if he had anything else to say. He registered her expression and retracted his smile.

"Sorry," he said. "That was a stupid question. I heard you lost your job?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Bella shrugged again, avoiding his eyes. She didn't know if he knew why she was fired but she hoped not. He was waiting for some kind of reply but she gave him none. Christmas carols were playing overhead although Christmas had been and gone almost two weeks ago.

"Well, I'll let you get back to your shopping," he said. "Nice to see you again."

"You too."

"Do you know what you're going to do now?"

"What?"

"For work. Any idea what you want to do now, any plans?"

Bella didn't know how to answer. She hadn't thought about it. She thought it now briefly but there seemed to be nothing to think about. Her future seemed blank. Without Alice.

"I don't know," she said. "I hadn't really thought about it."

"Well, maybe you should come down to the store sometime. I've been looking to hire someone, even just temporarily."

"I don't know anything about sporting goods."

"Didn't stop you back in highschool, remember? All I need is someone behind the counter. Think about it, okay?"

"Okay."

"Great. I'll see around."

"Yeah. You too."

He gave her another smile, all dimples and blue eyes. Bella found it vaguely revolting for some reason but she smiled back. He nodded and then he pushed his cart on down the aisle.

That night she tried cooking something but it wasn't the same without Alice. She made pasta and ate slowly as she thought about her life. About what she was going to do now. Her career over. Her heart broken. She had gotten used to being lonely before she met Alice. But now she didn't know. They say it's better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all and she would've agreed—before Alice.

She went to bed with her phone and curled up in the dark and read old texts. The oldest was only weeks old. Hard to believe they had only been together for a few short months. She flipped through the pictures again and touched the screen with her fingertip. The pain inside her was like her heart had been shattered into fragments of glass embedded in her chest. It hurt to breathe. To live. She wanted to die and she realized she really did. She had been crying but then she stopped crying. Thoughts of suicide seemed to soothe her.

In the morning she decided she better get her life in order. Three days later she visited her old friend from highschool at his store in town and took the job.

It was a small place on main street, not far from the school. It sold sporting goods and hiking equipment. It used to belong to his father until his father died. Bella had worked here once before, back when she was a teenager, part time for a few hours after school. Now she was full time. Most days they worked together and he seemed happy for the company. He gave her a quick course in sale techniques and a rundown of the goods in stock. The store smelled of rubber and tennis balls, a scent oddly comforting. Bella nodding, a strange peace settling over her. Memories of highschool. Old friends. Simple days. She smiled at him a few times and even laughed at some of his jokes. Relationship rekindling.

She didn't know how long she expected to work there but she worked there a while. The days turned to weeks and the weeks turned to months. The snow cleared. Winter went away. Spring came and the weather turned almost warm.

She woke in the mornings to the sound of birds outside her bedroom window and a bright dawn beyond the curtains. Yet still with loneliness in her heart. It had been a long time but it still felt sad to wake without that warm weight in the bed beside her. Those eyes watching her, those lips smiling. A kiss good morning. Bella lay there and listened to the birds, remembering her, missing her. Some mornings she would wake from dreams in which Alice never left. Dreams so real that upon waking reality itself seemed the nightmare. A gasp in her throat, tears in her eyes. The loss and the loneliness crashing upon her all over again. By now she had abandoned hope that Alice would return but she could not abandon the despair that Alice had left her. Nor did she want to. It was all she seemed to have left.

She walked to work in the mornings with her head down and her hands in her pockets. It rained some days—spring rains, warm and clean—and she would wear a black raincoat.

In the afternoons she would have lunch with her old friend from highschool in the diner across the street from the store. The diner where Alice used to work. Bella would order a salad and save him the mushrooms because she didn't like them. One afternoon she found herself short on money and he offered to pay for her. She said she'd get him the money tomorrow or she could run to the bank quickly. He told her not to worry about it and went to pay at the counter. Bella gathered her loose change back into her purse and the waitress, who'd come by to take the plates, looked over her shoulder and back at Bella.

"Wow, he's cute," she said. "You guy's dating or what?"

It was the same blonde waitress whom Alice had fed from once. Bella looked at her, a cold feeling creeping over her skin. "We're just friends," she said, although she didn't like what it looked like.

The next morning she gave him money for lunch and in the afternoon it began raining again. It was a slow day and the rain guaranteed no more customers. They talked all day, about this and that, and towards the end of the day they were goofing off like teenagers, playing catch with a football they'd taken directly off the shelves, tossing it back and forth across the store and laughing.

"I remember you in highschool," he was saying. "You couldn't catch anything. I always thought it was cute."

Bella snorted and caught the ball before throwing it back. "You thought every girl in school was cute."

"Nah, none of them were like you. I still can't believe you shot me down for prom. You know how crushed I was? I could never figure out why you didn't like me."

"It's not that I didn't like you," she said. "It's…"

She trailed off. She didn't like what she was saying. He was waiting with his hands ready, waiting for the ball and for her to continue. She lowered the ball and glanced at the rain in the front windowglass.

"Looks like the rain's slowing down," she said. "You mind if I take off early today?"

She had already put the ball back on the shelf. He nodded, a little disappointed at her abruptness, and spoke as she was putting her raincoat on.

"Yeah, sure, but listen," he said. "Why not stick around a little bit and let me give you a ride? Or maybe we could get something to eat together?"

Bella's face went hot. It felt like shame. A bad feeling was seeping into her stomach like poison and her ears rang loud enough to drown out the sound of the rain.

"No, thanks," she said, fluffing her hair out the raincoat and trying not to seem flustered. "If I'm not home in time to feed the cat…"

She trailed off. He nodded disappointedly.

"Thanks, though," she said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

She rushed out before he could reply.

She hurried home with the rain rattling on the hood of her raincoat, shoulders hunched, staring down at the sidewalk. She couldn't understand why she was so rattled. Had she rebounded so badly she was actually tempted to date someone she wasn't attracted to? No. It wasn't that. It was Alice. She was getting over her and that in itself felt like a betrayal.

She looked up. Rain was splashing in the streets and on the roof of the house. In one of the upper windows she thought she saw a curtain move and she hurried across the dead lawn to unlock the door. She raced upstairs and looked about. But the house was empty. Empty as her heart.

In the weeks to come she regressed deeper and deeper into her depression, although outwardly she remained normal. Even cheerful. She spent more time with her old friend but made it clear she wasn't interested in a relationship. He seemed to understand. They went to the movies once after work and she sat beside him in the dark of the empty theatre and remembered the times she came with Alice. The giggling, the touching, the making out. She smiled to herself sadly, knowing those days were gone, that they were never coming back. She dabbed at her eye with her knuckle as he laughed at the movie beside her.

She thought about suicide more and more. Mostly at night, alone in bed. At first it seemed frightening. Then it began to seem natural or inevitable. Finally it even seemed comforting. No more loneliness. No more sadness. It even seemed romantic. To die for love. For Alice. She wasn't sure if she was unable to live without her but she was positive she didn't want to.

The decision came to her very slowly. She did some checking on the internet. She researched methods. Soon she was even making preparations.

She quit her job at the store and said she was going back to university. She gave her clothes to charity. She visited an attorney and made a will, leaving her house and assets to a young cousin she hadn't seen since her moved out of state years ago. Each day more of her life slipped away from her until there was little left to cling to. Nothing but the cat. Snowflake had been with her for three years and for a time she felt Snowflake might be worth living for. At night she cuddled on her lap as they watched TV together but it wasn't the same as Alice.

Finally she ran an ad in the paper to try and find her a home. Days passed and she was about to take her to a shelter when she got a call from a woman who lived only a short walk down the street.

The next morning was Sunday morning. Bella fed her in the kitchen and watched her eat. The cat-cage was sitting on the kitchen table. When the cat was finally done she picked her up and held her for a moment. It was bright in the kitchen window, brighter than the occasion would seem to warrant. Bella petted her until she wanted to go down and then she kissed her, shedding a single tear, and loaded her into the cat-cage.

She delivered the cat herself, carrying the cage down the sidewalk in the bright light of morning with her entire life falling away before her. She knocked on the woman's door and the woman came out onto the porch, smiling, already cooing to the cat and poking her fingers through the cage.

"Aww, she's so cute, isn't she? The kids are going to be so thrilled. They always wanted a cat but it's so expensive for a purebred. What's her name?"

"Snowflake."

"She's beautiful."

Bella nodded and handed the woman the cage. The woman took it, smiling through the mesh. Bella smiled too, a fey smile, not unhappy.

"I'm just glad I could find a home for her," she said.

"She'll be happy here, I promise. But it really is a shame you have to leave town and can't take her with you."

"Yeah."

"When exactly are you leaving?"

"Not sure. Soon."

"Have you decided where you're going?"

Bella chuckled once, softly, to herself. She shuffled her feet on the porch and turned and looked up at the sky, squinting slightly in the sun.

"Yeah," she said. "I know where I'm going."

Then she sighed and said her last goodbyes to the cat before turning back to the sidewalk and walking home to a house that was finally, truly, empty.

She gave herself almost a week to reconsider but it didn't happen. She left the house only once to buy a straight razor at the pharmacy. It seemed like the best option. She didn't want to decompose so she planned to call an ambulance moments before she did it to come pick up the body. Painkillers would've been too unreliable. A severed artery would be her best bet. And poetic too. Exsanguination. Death by blood loss. It would prove that she would've loved Alice with all her life if only Alice had stayed.

It felt right on Saturday night. The same night Alice used to feed from her. She ate a small dinner in the kitchen and thought about her life and realized she wasn't unhappy with it. It seemed fine for what it was. But it had run its course and now it was over.

After dinner she washed the plates at the sink and dried them and put them away. Then she dried her hands with the dishtowel and wondered if there was anything else she needed to do. She was looking at the fridge. In the window behind her a dark figure was crouching in the darkness by some flowerbushes like a dark little gnome. Bella didn't notice it. She hung the dishtowel from the barhandle of the stove and went upstairs. The figure rose and moved deeper into the shadows.

Bella went into her bedroom and opened the dresser drawer but then she realized she didn't need a change of clothes. She closed the drawer again and went into the bathroom.

The first thing she did was use the toilet. Then she took off her clothes and folded them carefully on the tiled shelf by the bathtub. Pants. Shirt. Underwear. No towel. She laid her phone and the razorblade on top of the pile, carefully, like instruments of ritual. She turned on the taps and tested the water with the back of her hand, making sure it was nice and hot. She shook her hand dry and sighed and waited for the tub to fill. Out in the bedroom she thought she heard a noise but it was probably just the cat. It didn't occur to her in that heightened moment that the cat was gone.

Finally she turned the taps off and hesitated. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and she took a moment to look at herself one last time. Pale. Long hair. Dark. She hadn't known how beautiful she was before she met Alice. She had barely been alive before she met Alice. And even less alive after Alice had gone. Tears were coming into her eyes and thought she thought probably just get it over with.

She climbed into the tub and descended into the water, the warmth closing over her body and engulfing her. Like being swallowed. She took a moment to relax, her head completely blank. She laved water onto her arms and listened to the sound, the trickle.

Eventually she turned and took the razor from the pile of clothes. The handle was plain black plastic and she unfolded it, revealing the stainless steel blade. The edge was as long as her finger. She held it in one hand and sighed and turned her wrist. She could see the veins there, pale blue under her pale skin. Her head was ringing and her skin was electric. The touch of the razor to her wrist was almost like the graze of fangs on her neck. Her heart was throbbing and she was breathing deeply. She closed her fist, tightly, and began to apply pressure to the blade. The first drop of blood had dripped and bloomed a pale red in the bathwater when a soft voice spoke from the doorway.

"Don't."

—


End file.
